What More Could I Ask For? HIATUS
by koiketsudayou
Summary: Plunged into the Assassins Creed world, Amalia Salvatore De Luca would have never guessed that she would meet the person that she adores most, and fall in love with him at that.
1. Chapter 1

A/N:First Assassin's Creed story that I've written, and hopefully you guys enjoy it. ^^

Disclaimer:I do not own Assassin's Creed, but if I did, I'm pretty sure that fangirls across the world would be messaging me, and lining up at my doorstep just to meet thee Ezio Auditore...actually. Come to think of it. I would line up at my own doorstep to see that sexy mofo. Anyway, Flamers can go kiss my ass and eat the doodoo inside of it as well, because I don't appreciate people who flame stories. I'm always open for critique's but not for people that bash others stories.

"Amalia! How long does it take you to put on a damn dress?" Ezio shouted while standing at the bottom of the stairs. "Will you shut the hell up already? These dresses can't put themselves on you know. How about you try fitting into one of these chest crushing corsets." Amalia grumbled as she finished lacing up the back of the corset, with help from the mirror in back of her. Thank God for the men that created mirrors, she thought. After she finished tying up the dress and putting the revealing skirt on that rode up so high you could see part of her spandex underneath, she made her way out of her room. "Why did I agree to cosplay with this stupid friend of mine?" She questioned, ruffling her hair a bit. Sighing she headed downstairs where she could see her friend Jack (Ezio), sitting at the bottom of the steps looking more irritated than ever.

When he heard her footsteps he glanced up with an angry face, but it quickly turned to that of shock and admiration. He quickly stood up to give her room to maneuver past him, but she stopped right in front of him, waiting for something to come out of his mouth. "..Wow..." He breathed out, trying desperately not to stare at her overly exposed breasts. "I knew I shouldn't have worn this. I can't believe you talked me into being an Italian renaissance prostitute. "She half yelled, slapping him lightly on the chest. "Well you know how much of a man whore Ezio is, so it was just appropriate….and might I add that you fit the part very well."

Her eyes squinted angrily at him, before she huffed and hurried towards the door not wanting to stand there and let him eye rape her. "Come on Ja-Ezio. We're going to be late if you don't stop eying me like that." As if he was slapped in the face, he snapped out of his lustful daze and ran to catch up with Amalia as she almost slammed the door in his face. "Be happy you're my very close friend and not some random dude on the street, because so help me God I would've pummeled you for looking at me like that." Amalia watched as Jack smirked, like he was actually Ezio to begin with, and grabbed her by the waist, escorting her towards their car. "I would love to be beaten up by you," He whispered.

Amalia had no idea how much longer she could deal with this. Maybe it was a bad idea to go as Ezio and the prostitute to the convention. For starters, if her own Ezio couldn't keep his eyes off of her, what makes you think that the other male cosplayers won't?

"Watch it Signore. That tongue of yours will be the death of you." She threatened as they pulled out of their Brooklyn apartment to head to the Jacob Javits Center. "Aww come on Amalia. You could at least play the part and throw yourself at me." He suggested turning towards her as they came to a stop at the red light. Amalia leaned in closer as if she was going to kiss him but slapped him roughly on his cheek to wake him up from his daydreams. "Jack…."She said sweetly, with a hint of annoyance in her tone. "Do that one more time and watch what happens." Jack gulped audibly and retracted back to his sitting position. "Won't let it happen again." He told her. "Good." She replied, satisfied that she had set him straight.

Now all she had to do was set everyone else straight if they approached her.

HOLY FLYING COW NUGGETS! This was the tenth person that had come up to her, asking for a picture with her and Ezio. Apparently they were the talk of the convention in the artists' alley, because of how 'amazingly awesome' their outfits were. People commented on how much of a whore she looked like, and how well she pulled it off. It also didn't help that her boobs were the size of watermelons and shaped the dress perfectly. It honestly bothered her to no end. Everywhere she went Ezio always had his hands around her waist or they merely just held hands. Amalia could practically feel the smirk radiating off of Jack at the moment, but she didn't say anything, afraid that it would ruin the perky atmosphere around them. "Hey, Amalia. You want to grab something to eat. I'm kind of hungry." Amalia almost broke her neck, nodding as fast as she could. She thought that he would never ask, because all this mental venting had taken a toll on her. Before they could actually get to the food court, she spotted an Assassins Creed II booth, not far off from where they were standing.

"Jackkk!" She yelled excitedly while tugging on his arm. "There's an Assassins Creed II booth over there. Can we go? Can we go? Can we goo!" She whined like a little kid, bouncing up and down, while almost ripping his arm out of his socket. "Geez, Amalia! Calm down!" She couldn't help but get even more excited as he said that to her. "Alright." He moaned, obviously agitated at her childish behavior. "I'm going to grab some merchandise from the Artist booth over there, and you go do whatever. Meet me back here in….."

Amalia didn't let him finish as she weaved in and out of people, mind set on getting to that booth and buying out the entire place. As she got there, she was relieved that barely anybody was there. Only a couple of people were standing behind the counters, chatting up a storm. "Um...excuse me." She asked, interrupting the conversation. "It said on the website that a simulation Animus 2.0 would be here." Amalia could barely contain her excitement as the people nodded and opened up a small door behind them, for her. "You only get about 10 minutes in the thing, so once you're done just come out and fill out these papers about what you liked and didn't." She squealed out loud and was quickly ushered into the room. As she stared at the Animus 2.0 in the middle of the room, she couldn't help but gasp at how realistic it seemed.

It looked exactly like in the game, chair and all, with a table next to it, and a model of Rebecca and Lucy sitting down, like they were actually typing away at the computer. She didn't see Shaun anywhere, but she didn't really care. "This chair is really expensive so don't move around to much in it, Okay." She nodded and allowed them to sit her down in the Animus, careful not to knock anything. As they set up the machine, Amalia thought to herself. How could they have built this so quickly if the game had just come out only a month ago? On top of that, why was it that her instincts were telling her to get the hell out of there? She didn't know why, but it seemed just a bit too suspicious.

"Okay were all ready to go!" They gave her thumbs up as they excited the room, leaving it in complete darkness. All of a sudden a bright screen appeared in front of her face with Ezio on the screen. All of her questions, and doubts suddenly disappeared as she felt excitement flow through her. She watched the screen carefully, as a small scene appeared with Enzi chasing after a man. _Wait a minute. This was the trailer for Assassins Creed II!_ "What a friggin' rip off." She mumbled to herself as she moved to get out of the chair. And here she thought that she would be thrown into the Assassins Creed world. "Maybe our technology isn't that advanced yet."

"Where do you think you're going?" Her blood ran cold as she turned back to the screen to see Lucy, Shaun, and Rebecca standing there. "Uhhh…" Nothing sensible came out of her mouth as she saw that all three of them were glaring at her. "You can't just leave while Florence is unstable." Amalia nervously laughed to herself, trying to think up some type of explanation as to why these characters were talking to her. "Maybe I ate too much pasta. Probably went straight to my head." She started to get up out of the Animus when she felt a tug on her hand, making her lurch backward. Turning around she looked to see that half of her hand was in the screen with a weird yellow glow around it. "Holy cow." She screamed as more of her started getting pulled into the screen. "Jack I swear to god, that if this is some kind of joke, then I'm going to personally castrate you so that only a stubble is left. AND I'LL LET YOU BLEED TO DEATH!" Amalia screamed as the rest of herself was thrown through the TV. She felt herself land on a hard surface, making her groan. "We don't have time for this, Amalia. Get in the animus now. Ezio needs you."

_What the fudge…. _Regretting ever opening her eyes, she was staring at Rebecca who was frantically typing away on her computer. "Come on! Get up. Get up!" The deep voice of Desmond sent her falling back on her ass as she stared into his deep chocolate colored eyes. "You agreed to be permanently synchronized with the Animus so that you could lend a hand to those in need. Now if you're taking that back, then I'm seriously tempted to punch you in the face." Amalia couldn't comprehend what was happening as she was strapped into a chair with a needle coming out of the side of her neck.

"This might hurt a lot...but after this you won't feel anything. FYI! We're sending you back to the beginning, before Desmond screwed up everything..." She paused to glare at Desmond, and then continued speaking. "You're going to be placed somewhere between the killing of Ezio's family to him trying to escape from Florence to Monteriggioni, so be prepared for anything. Try and remember all your training, and skills that you have acquired, because I guarantee that sending you back will erase most of your memory."

Amalia yelled for them to stop, even though they were fictional characters, and she was probably having some strange dream, but it didn't stop her from screaming at the top of her lungs, before being plunged into complete darkness.

Why was it that It was so warm….Too warm actually. It felt like there was fire around her. Amalia sniffed the air, making her cough uncontrollably. Maybe she was in hell and smelling the burnt wood around her was her punishment. Soon everything slammed into her making her eyes bulge out of her head, and also causing her to gasp for air. Her surroundings were being burned and all she could see were people gathering outside of the window, and what looked like people yelling for help. Trying to get up was meaningless because she collapsed to the ground with pain shooting up her left leg. On top of her leg was a large table that seemed impossible to move.

_Oh my god, I'm going to die_. Amalia screamed for help, but the noise of the flames was too much, and overpowered her tiny voice. Inhaling too much of the smoke caused her vision to falter, also making her cough more than she should. Her lungs were on fire and there was absolutely nothing that she could do to stop it. Slowly the flames rose higher and higher until a ring of fire was around her, slowly closing in.

_I guess this is it._ "Signorina! Grab my hand!" Amalia opened her eyes to see a man standing only a couple of feet away from her, due to the ring of flames surrounding her. Amalia stretched as far as she could, but anything she did was in vain. "I'm going to jump over the flames, but once I do you must heave yourself up as much as you can." Amalia nodded and watched as the man backed up and jumped over the flames coming to a sudden stop right next to her. She pushed herself up as much as she could, as the man lifted up the table slowly. She cried out in pain as she felt her flesh tear from off of her leg. Then man swiftly picked her up into his arms and jumped over the flames as best he could. Without any damage done to his clothing he rushed out of the house and into the crowds of people that were screaming about the fire. "Father, she must see a doctor. Her leg must be torn." Amalia slipped in and out of consciousness as she felt herself being carried somewhere. She shivered at the sudden change in temperature and shifted closer so that her arms were wrapped around the man's neck. At the movement she whimpered, as her leg burned more than it had before. "Shhh...It'll be okay, Signori." Amelia didn't exactly believe him because her leg didn't seem to get any better the further they traveled.

She didn't know how long she was out of it, but she felt herself being placed on a soft bed, with the covers tucked under her chin. She struggled to open her eyes to see who exactly her rescuer was, but darkness soon swarmed her vision and knocked her out cold.

Birds chirped cheerfully, and sunlight filtered through the window, making the room be illuminated in bright lights. As the lights hit her face, her eyes fluttered open to see a nicely furnished room with a table off to her left and a mirror right in front of her. Amalia picked herself up and through her legs over the side of the bed getting ready to move. At the sight of her leg she gasped and almost fainted at how many bandages littered her leg. Carefully avoiding walking on that leg, she placed her hands on anything that could steady herself and maker her walk to the door easier. Opening the door, she peeked out to see a long hallway that led to a set of stairs.

The energy that she put into walking into the stairs felt like she had run a marathon, and then did a 30 mile run for a cool down. All in all, it was hell getting to the stairs. There was barely anything in the hallway to steady her, making her curse out loud every single time she stumbled. Maybe she should have waited for someone to come inside and introduce themselves, but being the very impatient one, she decided to take it upon herself to greet them. Amelia almost made a fool of herself as she stumbled and nearly cracked her head open on the stairs, if it wasn't for a firm hand that had wrapped itself around her waist. When she turned around to thank the person she almost fainted from who it was.

Why the hell was Federico Auditor de Firenze staring at her in concern? He must have noticed the scared look on her face, for he pulled his hand away and took a step back. "Mi dispiace. I did not mean to frighten you, Signorina." Amalia had no idea what to say to this. For one, she had no idea what had happened to her to maker herself appear in this world. And secondly, she had no idea what her life had been like before. All she knew was her name…ha how cheesy did that sound. Amnesia occurs on a young maiden and the typical thing that she only remembers is her name. "May I ask what your name may be, bella." As if something had controlled her, she felt herself saying her name without even realizing it. "Amalia Salvatore de Luca." Amalia tipped her head forward out of respect and waited for him to tell her his name, even though she already knew. "Federico Auditore de Firenze." He bowed towards her and she held in a giggle as he came back up. "How are you feeling mi cara." He asked helping her down the stairs at a leisurely pace. "My leg does not feel right, but the pain has lessened slightly." He nodded and smiled at her as they came to a stop in the kitchen.

"May I get you something to eat?" Amalia nodded and sat at the table as he prepared food for her. It wasn't long before Amalia could smell the pasta and bread inside the kitchen. The aroma caused her to sigh out of pure satisfaction. She heard Federico chuckle and she lifted her head off of the table to stare at him. "I take it you enjoy pasta a lot." Amalia nodded and smiled at him. "It is my favorite food." She confessed, blushing as he observed her longer than need be. "Well I'm glad I have the pleasure of making something that you enjoy." He smirked at her, as Amalia turned away, cheeks now red like a tomato. Why was it that he was so hot and arrogant, and she enjoyed that? Why couldn't Federico be a timid man that she would not have second thoughts of throwing herself at him? Well she wasn't complaining being stuck with him. Ezio on the other hand….she already had enough trouble with…..

Wait! What was the man's name? She couldn't put a name and face together, and it scared her. Flashes of people walking around and small figurines popped into her head causing her to clutch it from how fast the images kept on playing. As soon as they had come they disappeared bringing her back to the present. She was glad that Federico didn't notice her sudden silence, because she didn't know how she could handle him coming towards her and asking her questions. A couple of minutes later, Federico placed a bowl of pasta with bread on the side in front of her. "I am not sure if you want salad or not." Amalia shook her head and placed a hand on top of his.

Staring directly into his eyes she smiled brightly. "Thank you very much for everything. I really do not know what would have happened to me if you hadn't saved me and tended to my wounds. I truly am thankful." Amalia slightly stood up and pecked him on the cheek, trying to slow her now fast beating heart.

Federico opened his mouth to say something, but stopped as a small boy and older gentlemen walked into the room. "Ah! Federico, I must ask you a favor. Can you accompany Petruccio? He wants to collect feathers around town, but I do not want him going alone." His father asked taking his shoulders off of the younger Auditore. "Yes father." Federico looked back at me with sad eyes, and she smiled at him in a silent request to go on. "Will you be fine on your own?" Amalia nodded and lightly shoved his lower back to make him go. He smiled and waved at her as he left the house, leaving her and the father in the kitchen. "How are you feeling mi cara." He asked, sliding into a seat in front of her. Amalia took a small bite of her food and swallowed the delicious pasta before continuing. "I am feeling much better, thanks to Federico. He is a good man." She told him, honestly. "Indeed he is. Maybe if you are feeling up to it, you can walk the streets with him tonight to get to know each other." What exactly was their father trying to imply. She couldn't help but blush uncontrollably and hide behind her hair that fell in front of her face.

"Do not be shy. He is a nice man with no intentions of hurting you." A silence enveloped them as Amalia continued to eat her food, not exactly sure what to say to him in this situation. "Ah. It is getting late. I must be on my way, but feel free to explore the villa if you are up to it." With that said, he exited the kitchen leaving Amalia to her thoughts.

You could say that she was scared, but more shy and inexperienced. All of that was clearly on her face when Federico asked her to accompany him for a walk. She didn't exactly say yes, but she didn't refuse. Let's just say that she was in the process of thinking when a handsome man burst into the guest bedroom that she was staying in. "Federico! I have something I must show you." When examined more, Amalia stared at thee Ezio Auditore. He may not know it now, but he was going to become a very popular man (good and bad), later on. The reason why she was so hesitant to go on the walk was because it would be a date. She wasn't even sure when they were going to die, but she knew it was soon because something inside of her told her that it was tomorrow. "Not now, Ezio. Amalia and I were just on our way out to take a nightly stroll."

Ezio looked visibly defeated and closed the door silently. Federico turned back towards Amalia and stretched his hand out to help her up.

Maybe one little date wouldn't kill her.


	2. Chapter 2

**Replies:**

**jazz-sparks**: **thank you so much for the comment and telling me that..I didn't even realize that the speech changed drastically when she started talking. Thank you for pointing that out. **

**OrderOfThePhoenix117: Thank you for reading and commenting. Glad that someone took the time to stop and review. That honestly means a lot to me!**

**A/N: I am only able to update once a week so if you're wondering why it's taking me so long to get chapters out well now I told you. So please don't think that I just decided to stop writing this story because there are obviously going to be more chapters. Also..sorry that this chapter is kind of short. I didn't want for you guys to wait any longer as a week has passed up.  
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**Disclaimer: I own the dirt under my shoes, and the spider on my ceiling. If only I owned Ezio Auditore. For once I would want someone to write that they did own them...in the sense that the game creator had made a fanfiction. Wouldn't that be awesome :)  
**

As Amalia walked slowly with Federico next to her, a comfortable silence had passed between the both of them, neither wanting to say anything afraid that they would break that calm atmosphere that surrounded them. She gazed up at the stars fascinated at how brightly they stood out in the sky. As she smiled, she could feel Federico's gaze upon her, but she didn't make an effort to notice him…well not that much. Before long they had arrived back at the villa: where Federico stopped her, making her spin around into his arms. His warm brown eyes met her mossy green orbs and he smiled at her warmly. Nothing was said in that moment and Amalia couldn't help but pull away from his grasp, and watch his once happy expression turn to that of melancholy.

"I-I'm sorry.." She started, lowering her gaze towards the floor and letting her head hang. "I don't want to give you the wrong idea." Amalia was surprised when Federico put his hand under her chin, lifting it up to make her gaze meet his, but no trace of disappointment or sadness was found on his face. At not finding any trace of sadness that once was on his face her eyes widened a bit, making Federico smile at her. "Do not worry Amalia. I am not easily hurt by things." A smile graced her lips also making a wider smile creep unto his face. "Thank you for understanding." She replied, now not hesitating in showing any affection for him by putting her hands around his waist, hugging him.

"Although no girl has turned down this, but that is fine. The rejection will go away in time." He told her, grinning as he returned the hug. At that sentence Amalia pulled away from the hug laughing, and lightly slapped Federico on the arm, from how ridiculous he was. "Come now, Let us go inside and rest up." She nodded, now feeling lethargic. Her eyes started fluttering closed, but she forced herself to keep her eyes open as she had trouble walking towards the door. Her foot started burning after all of the walking that she had done, but Federico helped by guiding her inside of the villa, steadying her whenever her body wavered too far to one side almost causing her to fall over. "I see that your leg is still not fully healed yet." He stated, almost making Amalia to roll her eyes at his statement.

Of course her leg wouldn't be fully healed yet. Just yesterday she had been saved from a burning building. What did he expect? That her cuts and bruises be fully healed like Wolverine from the X-men. It took everything for her to not roll her eyes, but instead she opted to not even answer him. After a few minutes of struggling Amalia managed to make it to the room that she was staying in and smiled when the bed came into view. _Finally! I thought I would never make it. _Collapsing unto the bed made her happy as the scent of freshly washed sheets drifted up into her nose, making her sigh contentedly. One of her eyes opened to stare at an amused Federico who was standing in the doorway. "If you need…a change of clothes my sister has a few dresses that she doesn't wear anymore."

"That'd be nice. And…is there a bathroom somewhere. I feel like a reek of hay and sweat right now."Federico chuckled and held a finger up signaling that he'd be back in a moment. When he left, Amalia lied there thinking if this would be the last time that she would see Federico. The fangirl in her started to bubble inside, trying to push her to just plant one on him before she feel asleep that night. _Shut up_, she told her inner self. _If I hadn't done that to him outside, then maybe I might have considered that thought, but it'd be too weird if I did. He'd probably say something around the lines of "I knew I was irresistible." _ Amalia cringed at the thought of him saying that to her. She decided that she would just ignore the humiliation and rather kiss his corpse than see a smirk lie on his face if she did do that.

"Here is a red dress that I believe will fit you.." Federico declared coming into the bedroom to hand her a nice red dress with gold lining around the chest area. The dress was beautiful, but Amalia felt bad for taking one of Claudia's dresses. "Do not worry about the dress. I am sure Claudia wouldn't mind helping one in need." He told her as if reading her thoughts exactly. "If you say so." She responded gently taking the dress from his hands and placing it on a chair next to the bed. "Claudia does not have any extra night wear, but I am sure that the undergarments of your dress will do just fine. If you need the washroom it is down the hall, second to last door on the left." With that he kissed her on the cheek and made his leave, gently closing the door behind him. As soon as he left, a sigh of relief escaped her mouth.

For some reasons he was glad that he had left her alone. What she needed at the moment was an atmosphere where she could think without having to talk to someone. She decided that there was no need to worry over anything. The Auditore's took her in out of sheer compassion because of the fact that she had almost died in a house fire. If Federico hadn't saved her, who knows what would have happened. For that she was very thankful and knew that they would take care of her, even though she was a guest. On that happy note she peeled off her dress, leaving her in nothing but the bra she had on and her boxer shorts.

_I'll just wake up early tomorrow and wash up. I'm just too tired right now to even care about taking a bath._

Curling up in the warm duvet made falling asleep come much quicker than expected, in which Amalia gladly welcomed the dreamless sleep that she entered into.

"Open up this door!" Someone was pounding on the door, scarring Amalia out of her bed. She had just finished taking a shower, happy that she was now clean, and walked back into her room only for someone to be pounding on her door minutes later. Her eyes turned wide as it didn't sound like any of the Auditore's. "Who is it!" She called, sneaking over towards the door and pressing her ear up against it. Before she had any time to step away from the door, it burst open letting in a flood of guards that scared the crap out of her. "You're coming with us." The man next to her said gruffly, grabbing her arms and dragging her out the room. "Wait just a second. I didn't do anything and here you are grabbing me. Let go." Amalia yelled, trying to struggle out of the man's vice grip.

"Stop moving." He told her, annoyance clearly lacing his voice. "I have a right to say whatev-" Amalia's cheek stung and she stood in shock at how the guard just slapped her in the face. _What the hell was that for. If this guy didn't have such a deathly grip on me, I would have punched him in the face by now. _An evil smile crept unto her face as she started formulating a plan in her head. If she could just let them drag her out of the villa and into the streets in front of the house, there were a couple of boxes there that she could easily climb up on and escape with no problem. The only thing that she would have to do is keep a low profile and avoid any area that had any guards in it. Right!

Easier said than done.

Ok. So it didn't exactly go according to plan. They had dragged her out into the courtyard. Check

They had dragged her outside where Giovanni, Federico, and Petruccio were standing, with anger clearly written on their faces. Well she guessed check for that.

Of course Giovanni and Federico defended her saying that she was just a guest and that she had nothing to do with what was going on. The guards had been very mad, but they let her go, reluctantly, afraid that she was part of the Assassins. She figured that the guards had figured out how stupid they were and that no women could be an assassin. She knew that was why they were laughing as they dragged away the Auditore family, excluding Maria, Claudia and Ezio. Puffing out her cheeks Amalia went back inside not exactly sure what she was to do then. For one Maria had no idea that she was staying there and was shocked as she was dragged out the house. Two, she didn't exactly know Claudia, and she wasn't exactly going to stay around waiting for Ezio to show up. To be honest the only people that she had seen at all in the villa had been the three men and maybe a brief encounter with Ezio. Otherwise than that she felt like she didn't belong at all. Amalia sighed and made up her mind that she wasn't really wanted here, and that she could find her way around Florence without being attached to the Auditore family.

Maybe she could survive living on her own without having to whore herself out, or rely on someone else to give her housing. She took it upon herself to leave, and eventually she got lost around the city. Amalia conjured up a plan in her mind thinking that if she played the hurt woman and knocked on the door of a home, then maybe that person might let her stay. The only thing she needed to do was get hurt. Well that didn't seem too hard. There were about a million places in this town that she could get hurt.

Jump off of a building. While that might be effective, she was afraid that if she broke both her legs and no one was around, she didn't think that she would get to someones house in that condition.

Steal a guards sword and cut herself on the waist or arm. Although it sounded like a really good idea...what person in their right mind would go up to a guard and steal something. For one she barely escaped the last guard she encountered. If it wasn't for Federico speaking up and saying something, she would have been hung on the gallows the next morning. Then a thought popped into her head.

Monteriggioni!

It was perfect. She knew Ezio's life, which came strange to her because she couldn't remember anything about her previous life, but knew references to stuff in that world. Amalia knew that this would work. Getting to the countryside and to Monteriggioni was what she needed to do. If she could get to Mario and "pass out" in front of the gates, surely someone would find her and take her in. Ezio hadn't exactly met Mario and she was sure she wouldn't meet him for a good week or so. That just bought her enough time to get there and be living under some type of roof.

Only problem was that the city gates were heavily guarded by guards. Armed Guards at that.

Shit!

Maybe she didn't think this through as she thought she had.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: So I'm sorry about the last chapter being so jumpy, but what was meant to happen was for there to be noticeable breaks, but ff deleted the breaks when I tried uploading them..pissing me off in the process, so this chapter the breaks will be noticeable. Another thing I need to address is the fact that I haven't posted in forever. What was supposed to have happened was that two chapters would be posted last week Thursday, because I update every Thursday, but now I'm behind schedule and need to keep up. So for making you guys wait that long, this chapter is going to be super long…hopefully.**

**You know that everything looks longer in word, but when you post it its really, really short…well hopefully that won't happen.**

**Also thanks to people that have reviewed or added my story as a favorite. Keep on reading!**

**Disclaimer: I'm just putting this here because everyone else does. Personally I find it very unnecessary, but I like reading some because Authors put hilarious disclaimers.**

**And yes I know that my breaks are friggin' O's. **

**OoOoOo **

_Dear Mind,_

_Obviously I haven't exactly thought everything through before deciding to go jump on the back of a wagon without the farmer up front knowing. Sure he didn't know, but was I exactly sure on where he was headed. No. He could be headed to some godforsaken cave to go stash bodies for all I know. Only thing that's keeping me sane right now is the hope. Hoping that this man actually heads in the direction of Monteriggioni and not San Gimignano, because I'm sure that if I ended up in San Gimignano then I was totally screwed. There's only a small hole to peek through though, because I'm lying under a bunch of hay, that might I add smells like horse poop. It certainly doesn't smell like peaches and roses. _

_Well wish me luck, because something inside of me tells me that I'm not headed in the right direction._

Boy was she right.

**OoOoOo **

When Amalia discreetly hopped off the back of the wagon, she knew that her guts had been right all along. She now stood a good ways off from the gates that lead into San Gimignano.

"Shit." She cursed, slapping a now sweaty hand to her warm forehead. Of course the sun's shining down on her in a mocking way, just laughing it up, up there. Amalia glared as best she could through her squinting eyes at the bright glowing ball in the sky. Her fist shook madly in front of her just challenging the sun to come down and say something to her face. "It's probably all you fault you stupid sun." She said through clenched teeth. "Maybe if the farmer hadn't been blinded by your stupid luminous light, then maybe he would have seen that he was headed the wrong way." She stomped her foot and grumbled to herself now wondering how the hell she was supposed to get from here to Monteriggioni. The fear of being caught by the guards made survival mode kick in, causing her feet to move on its own, leading her directly into the city. Right now she was trying to find a market so that she could steal some food as well as a basket to carry it in. To her right she spotted a fairly large man standing behind a stand that was selling fruit. Staying a couple of feet away she inconspicuously observed the man's behavior toward his customer. The reason why she was doing that was in case she couldn't steal anything and needed a place to stay. It would be fairly easy to "faint" next to the man's stall and trust him enough, from his behavior, to treat her and take her into his home. Amalia was sure that she wouldn't be able to make it to Mario's estate any time soon being in the situation that she was in, so she decided that fainting was her best option.

The crowd started parting a little as Amalia purposely staggered to get someone's attention that something wasn't exactly right with her. After a couple of more staggers to get the scene to be a little more real, Amalia closed her eyes and fell, praying that she wouldn't hit anything hard on her way down. Concrete met her head and a white hot pain shot through her almost making her reach up to clutch her head. Instead she tried to stick it out and not touch her head hoping that someone would just pick her up soon so that she would be able to lie in a comfy bed. The ground wasn't really that comfortable and she was getting tired of laying there. A gruff voice broke her from her thoughts, as it sounded closer to her ear.

She slowed her breathing down a little bit, to make it look like she was taking in small breathes, which in fact she was. Her head was pounding from the impact of the concrete to her head, making her wish that she had at least strong arms to break her fall. A tear made its way down her cheek as she felt herself getting tired, but a voice brought her from the darkness that threatened to take her. "_Signorina_, please open your eyes." A voice told her. Warm hands touched her cheek, slightly urging her to open her eyes. They traveled the length of her face, from her temple all the way down to under her chin. The soft caress on her cheek brought her from complete darkness, and she opened her eyes to have light flood into them. A face came to view, but she couldn't make out exactly what the person looked like.

'_Stupid me with my bright idea of "fainting" to get attention and shelter.' _ She mentally scolded herself for ever thinking that this was a good idea.

After a few times of blinking she was able to make out green eyes that she swore would've made her knees buckle just from looking at it, but due to the fact that she was on the ground made it really hard to do that. "Are you alright?" He asked, being very patient with how she was slowly responding to his voice. Amalia knew that it was her own fault that she couldn't fully process anything properly at the moment, but she was glad that this man was understanding and didn't yell at her to get the words out of her mouth.

She didn't really answer the sentence with words, but instead opted to groan, hoping that he would get the message that she was in pain. "I think you have hit your head on the concrete, _Signorina_. Shall I take you to a doctor?" Concern was clearly etched into his face, but Amalia just wanted to smack him for stating the obvious.

Of course she had hit her head on the concrete. What else would she be down her for, staring up at the beautiful buildings just for the heck of it. "It hurts.." She croaked, her shaky voice matching the mood that she was in. "If you are not able to move, then I must carry you to the doctor." Amalia didn't really care at the moment. The only thing that she was worried about was the brain cells that she was losing at the moment. Well not really, but you get the gist of what she means. The pain was worse when he moved her, and Amalia cried out as he moved her head so that it was now resting on his shoulder; as he walked through the streets with her in his arms. "Do not worry _mia cara_. We will be there soon."

Soon should've came quicker than it did, but Amalia knew that she shouldn't be complaining. It was her fault after all.

The strange man with green eyes rested her unto a table that seemed to be covered with a dark green type of cloth, which was actually quite comfortable. Amalia didn't pay attention to the words that were exchanged between the doctor and the green-eyed man, but after a minute or so she felt a soft touch to her head that should've been comforting, but instead sent spears of sharp pains through her head. "Does that hurt _la mia donna._" Amalia shook her head slowly as she heard the man sigh. "Well there seems to be slight bruising near the back of your head from the fall, but slight application of this medicine everyday will have it healed in no time."

The doctor applied the medicine to her head, and almost instantly was it feeling better. She said almost because saying instantly would have been a complete exaggeration. "Well that is it. That will be 400 florins." Amalia sat up and watched as the man handed over the doctor some florins.

"Thank you my good man." He told him. "Oh and make sure that she's on bed rest for today and tomorrow. I am almost positive that when she wakes up tomorrow morning that she will have a bad headache and be dizzy." With that the doctor turned his back to them and started calling out to the crowd to come to him if they have injuries.

"Um..Thank you," she whispered quietly while putting her head down in embarrassment. "It is nothing to thank me for. Any good citizen would have done that." A tint of red crossed her fair cheeks, now even more embarrassed at his comment. "May I ask what your name is?"

Amalia paused not really sure if she should tell the man her actually name or not. If she lied then she would surely feel guilty about not telling him even though he took her to the doctor and paid for it. On the other hand she could tell him the truth, but sneak in a white lie about not having a place to stay. Her thoughts stopped short as the man slowly pulled her chin up so that they were not at eye level with each other. Her breath caught in her throat and she sighed at how handsome the man was. He had green eyes that had small specks of orange near the pupil. He had light brown hair that seemed to turn a burnt orange in the sun, as well as high cheekbones and full lips that were a light pink color.

Amalia stopped her examination as she heard a slight chuckle come from him. "I take it you enjoy my features." At that moment, she had the sudden urge to stick her tongue out at him, but that seemed to childish and she didn't want to come off as immature to him. "Well if you must know," she started, trying to drag on the awkward silence for as long as possible. It stopped when his eyebrow raised in question, and she knew that she had lost the battle. "Amalia Salvatore De Luca." She spat.

He didn't even look phased at her sudden harshness in tone, but merely shrugged it off and smiled wider. "Demarco Costa." He took a step back and bowed, coming back up only with a smirk written on his face. "Is there a reason why your face is like that?" She asked, clearly annoyed at his sudden smirk. "Nothing. I am just wondering where this _bella_ lives, that I may escort her home safely."

Here was the part the part where she would tell a lie. Amalia quickly frowned and turned her head away from his face. "I don't have a home." She answered, hoping that he would get the message. "I don't have anywhere to go."

"Do you need a place to stay then?" He questioned, now standing in her line of vision. "If it wouldn't be any trouble." She told him, truthfully. Even though she was aiming for staying at someone's house, she didn't want to be a burden on them at all. "Well then. Follow me Amalia."

**OoOoOo **

The villa wasn't as big as the Auditore's, but it was fairly big nonetheless. Not that she was complaining or anything about the size. It was actually quite cozy now that she thought about it.

"Lastly is the kitchen. I don't usually cook, so it's just a little bit dusty here. I'm sure that you can find some use of it."

"Just because I'm a lady, doesn't necessarily mean that I will automatically like the kitchen." She mumbled with her arms crossed across her chest. "I did not assume. You were the one that assumed."

"No you did." She retorted, getting fed up with his behavior. "Don't assume because it makes an ass out of you and me." With that she turned around and headed into the living room, ignoring the small chuckle that erupted from his throat. "I must say," he started, but stopped to follow her into the living room, "You are a very different lady, Amalia." A knock was heard on the door, in which Demarco held up a finger telling her to wait a second. Demarco exited the room leaving Amalia to sit there and think to herself. What exactly had she gotten herself into? Clearly this man had nothing to do with Ezio, but why had she met him instead of the man that she had picked behind the stall. She had expected that man to run from behind the stall and help her, but Demarco came out of nowhere.

Amalia put a hand to her forehead to make sense of what was exactly going on. She shouldn't be here. She should be on the road trying to find a way to Monteriggioni, or at least going to an Assassin so that she could at least get some type of help. Well, she couldn't really go up to the man and be like "Hey. My names Amalia, and you're an assassin. Let's be friends." Things didn't really work that way. She wished that it did. In all honesty, Amalia didn't really know why she was here. It wasn't like she would want to become an assassin. More like she would rather be protected by one, but it would be really rare for her to find an assassin.

Demarco seemed like he could be trusted. Of course she was in his debt because he brought her to the doctor, but she was a little uncomfortable around him, even though he treated her like she was part of his family. Speaking of family, Amalia wondered where exactly Claudia, Maria, and Ezio where right now.

"Are you hungry Amalia." She jumped in her seat and turned around to see Demarco standing there with a basket load of food. "Don't do that. You scared me." Demarco smiled in an attempt to lighten the mood, and held up the basket of food silently asking her if she was hungry. "Do you cook?" She asked, now standing in front of him. "The kitchen is dusty. What might you think?" He wittily replied. "Fine! Be that way."

"You know I was just teasing you _mia cara_. I mean nothing of it."

"So now you're trying to butter me up, huh." She joked, having a hint of amusement lacing her voice.

"You are not bread. Why would I need butter?" He questioned, head tilted, and eyes squinted just a little bit in question. Amalia found it utterly adorable, but would never voice that out loud. Instead she opted to smile slightly while biting on her lip slightly. "Nevermind…" She told him. Maybe saying phrases like that wasn't such a good idea. "Are you a good cook?" He inquired, making his way into the kitchen. "Well," she drawled out," It depends on what I'm cooking." Amalia followed him into the kitchen, and eyed him as he placed the basket on the counter. He started to take vegetables and meats out of the basket and place it to the side where a plate rested. "Wait!" She yelled. You should wash the plate first before you go and put meat on it."

Demarco nodded and they both set out to clean the kitchen and prepare a meal that wasn't yet decided. Amalia asked him if he wanted fried chicken with cooked vegetables and he responded with a hmm. She scowled at him, not really liking his answer. Any question in general that ended with a one worded answer or a grunt really pissed Amalia off. If someone asks you a question they should answer with a sentence. No one wants to her groans and grunts as an answer. They sound like a friggin' cave man.

"So tell me Amalia. I would like to get to know you more. Tell me a bit about yourself."

After spending almost an entire day with Demarco she got to know about him more than he knew about her. It was a little unfair that she knew a lot about him, like how his parents died in a fire on the ranch that they used to own, just a little ways from San Gimignano. His sister had apparently married a rich scholar, but was murdered by an unknown person. He apparently wanted revenge on his sister, but put his anger into working as carpenter. Amalia found him to be quite an interesting man, and she was glad that he was the one that had taken her to the doctor. Even though earlier she had said that she would have preferred to have the man from the stall take her in, she changed her mind and was glad that Demarco did.

"Well…" He said waiting for her to tell him.

"Well you wouldn't really believe me if I told you." She responded, turning around so that their eyes met his green ones.

This was going to be a long story to tell.

**OoOoOo **

"That's quite a story you have told." He said in disbelief.

"No I'm being serious. That's the story. Although I can't remember the other half of it, I was hoping that there was some way that I could figure out why exactly I'm here." Amalia specifically left out the parts about Assassin's and Templars, not really sure if Demarco would report her to the guards about what she had told him. Instead she told him that she knew she had lived in another life, and that she had been put through an Animus and woke up in Italy.

Of course he had to do the same head tilt that almost made her squeal, but he closed his eyes and smiled a little. "I believe that you are telling the truth, despite the look on my face. Although it seems a little…questionable, but I do not judge." A grin broke across her face, making her get up to hug him around the waist. "I knew you'd understand." He chuckled and pushed her back away from his body. "Since the sun has disappeared, I believe that it is my bedtime. Unfortunately I do not have an extra bed, and that you may have to sleep in the same bed as me."

"It shouldn't be a problem.." She pointed a finger at his nose, making him back up a little. "As long as you don't try anything."

"Do not worry. I'm a man of my word."

**OoOoOo **

That morning when Amalia woke up she felt disgusting. Her hair was plastered to her forehead, sweat matted her entire body making the small amount of covers that covered her body stick to the exposed areas of her skin. What was even more uncomfortable was the fact that a lazy arm was thrown over her waist and she felt a hot breath in her ear. Amalia groaned at the fact that she had actually agreed to sleep in the same bed as a man she had met just a day ago.

She had no idea exactly what she was thinking, but at least her head wasn't hurting her as much as yesterday. Gently taking the arm from around her waist, she pushed it off of her and made to sit up, but the room started spinning.

"Woah." A warm hand touched her forehead, and she snapped in the direction of the owner to see Demarco lying there with no shirt on. She blushed and covered her cheeks, turning away from him to give him privacy. "You do not have to turn your head away from me."

"B-but, it's embarrassing. I can't look at a naked man." She yelled, clearly flustered at the situation that she was in.

"But I am not naked. My shirt is just missing." He reassured her, now sitting up in the same position that she was in. "Still, it's weird. I just slept next to you. If any person had walked in on us they would've thought that we had had…had s-s…the s word."

"You mean sexual intercourse." He said finishing the sentence for her.

"Please don't say that. It makes me feel married." She responded, pushing the covers away to make her way out of the bed.

"Sex is not just for married people." He pushed, trying to continue the conversation, even though Amalia had tried many times to get out of it. "Ok. Can we just stop talking about this subject please?" Amalia grabbed a tunic off the chair in the room, ignoring the fact that it was Demarco's, and pulled it over her head, not concerned about how much of a bird's nest her hair was at the moment.

"Can we just grab breakfast or something. I'm starving."

"Are you always this hungry." He asked, staring at her figure and how she keeps it, even though she eats more than he does. "Yeah, but it depends on what I'm craving for. I'm in the mood for pasta right now. Do you have pasta?"

"I believe that I have some."

"Good." She mumbled, shuffling from the bedroom, and making her way into the kitchen. Yawning, she threw her arms over the counter and laid there waiting for Demarco to come into the kitchen so that he could show here where exactly everything was. It seemed like ages as she waited for him to exit his room, but when he did he was fully dressed. "What are you doing?" She asked. Amalia walked in front of him and eyed his attire. He looked sharp in his white long sleeved shirt, and brown vest with brown pants, but she wouldn't tell him that. "I am going to the doctor to buy medicine for your head. I will be back in a little while."

He smiled widely and pecked her on the cheek surprising her greatly. Before she could yell at him for pulling something like that, the man was out the door before she could say what the hell. Amalia placed a tentative hand on her cheek and her eyebrows creased in confusion.

What was that all about?

A/N: Here comes the new character. I know that he's not in the Assassin's Creed II story line, but I figured I might spice up the story with a new character. I don't want this to be the same typical trapped in the Assassin's Creed II world, so I decided to add him. Comment and tell me what you think so far about the story. Well hopefully I'll be able to type up chapter 4 in study hall tomorrow, so look forward to this Thursday. But I'm not promising anything.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: I'm so proud of myself that I'm able to post once again, and I'll try and do that more often. So far I think the story has been coming along pretty well and I'm so glad that the O's that are being used for breaks work well. Thanks to the people that have read the story so far and favorited it. It makes me happy to know that people enjoy this story enough to favorite it. Also for your information I'm going to change around the story to first person sometimes, because typing in first person is a little easier, but the only reason why I'm so hesitant to type it is because I'm afraid that I'll use 'I' too many times. **

**AND OMFG I SAW A LITTLE BIG PLANET ASSASSIN'S CREED II DOLL! That just has to be thee cutest thing on the face of the planet. **

**Disclaimer: If I had owned Assassin's Creed II, I would've already put myself into the game, but sadly I don't own it.**

**Also thank you to those that have reviewed. You know who you are because right now I don't feel like addressing you directly.**

**OoOoOo**

Why was it that every time Demarco came into the room, she felt like hiding in a corner, and sheltering herself from the world. He always knew how to bother her and make her blush at the slightest things, and it annoyed her to no end. For example, the morning he left to get her medicine for her head, he came back with a set of dresses…and undergarments. When she had taken a look at them she nearly had a heart attack, as the lingerie was a little bit too provocative. She was mad that he would ever think that she would wear that, but the outfit she was wearing could say otherwise.

Another misunderstanding happened as they slept in the same bed together. They had tried to fall asleep one night, but Amalia's stupid hand just had to "accidentally" touch Demarco's…..package. It had felt big, but that wasn't the point. The point was that she screamed and jumped out of the bed covering her face with the duvet that she had managed to drag off with her, leaving a half naked Demarco laughing on the bed. She had sworn to him that the next time something like that happened she would kick him out of his own bed and put him on the couch.

Of course Demarco responded by saying that she was the one that had made the first gesture. That entire conversation made her want to rip her hair out, but that night instead of going back into bed with him she slept in a little ball on the floor with the duvet wrapped around her like a cocoon. At the moment Amalia was standing by the doorway waiting for Demarco to finish dressing, as he told her that he was going to show her around town, as well as the place he worked. Her mood had increased and she was excited to get shown around the city.

He had told her that it wasn't anything big, but it was still some sight to see because the buildings were built skillfully. Demarco had also added that there were a couple of buildings that he had built himself.

Conceited Bastard.

"Come on Demarco. I swear you're worse than a woman when it comes to dressing." She yelled, while patting her hair down, trying to tame the wild strays that had managed to pass by when she had brushed her hair that morning. "I am coming Amalia. I just want to look my best when going out." He emerged from the bedroom, making his way towards her and cupped her cheek as they were now standing within close proximity of each other. "Especially when walking with a _bella donna _as yourself.

She was never going to get used to him complementing her all the time.

**OoOoOo**

"This is the tailor, where I got your dresses of course. And-" He stopped as he was interrupted by her.

"Whay, whay wait wait wait. Hold up now. If this is a **tailor**," she said emphasizing the word tailor," How come you know my size." She questioned crossing her arms against her chest. "You're the same size as my sister." He said quickly, obviously wanting to dodge that topic.

Well, she couldn't really get mad at him for that. Maybe she should lighten up a little around him. As they started walking back through the streets, and into the market place, a question popped into her head that had been bothering her for the three days that she had stayed with him.

"Have you ever been to Monteriggioni?" She asked watching Demarco stoop down to pick up a fallen apple from a fruit stand. "Yes, but the town is in bad shape at the moment. Why do you ask?" He turned around to face her, waiting for her to tell him what's on her mind. "I kind of wanted to go there." She told him, digging her foot into the ground and drawing slow circles. "It is only a half a day ride from here. If you wish, we could travel there together." Her face instantly lit up and she crushed him to death with the bear hug that she had given him. If it were any by stander it would have seemed that he had asked her to marry him and that she was overwhelmed with joy. "It is nothing, but there is a problem though." He said, pulling her body away from his, that now the both of them made eye contact.

"I am short on florins and do not get paid till a much later date. But I assure you that I will take you to Monteriggioni." Amalia sighed as the information was relayed to her. How was she supposed to wait until later? What she needed to do was get to Mario's villa as soon As possible. There wasn't really a real reason as to why, but it just seemed like the right thing to do instead of staying in this town. Maybe if she waited a couple of days, Ezio would show up with Mario and his thieves. They were supposed to come here to kill Vieri de Pazzi, but she didn't know exactly when.

She figured that she might just have to stick it out.

**OoOoOo**

The rest of the afternoon was spent as Demarco showed her around town and went to the market to buy food for dinner later. "I will be right back Amalia. I must go speak to Antonio before his shop closes." Demarco lead her into an alley and held up a finger as he opened a side door to the house in front of her, stepping inside and disappearing. Amalia felt weird standing out here by herself. Especially when it was starting to get late and the sun was going down until only shades of pink and orange could be seen on the horizon.

"Come on," she mumbled, foot tapping rapidly. "How long does it take you to talk to this Antonio." A minute or so had probably past, but to Amalia it felt like a year. She was a very impatient person and hated it when she had to rely and wait on someone. Of course if she knew the layout of the town like the back of her hand, she would've been gone already. A crashing noise startled her out of her reverie. Turning her head to the left she saw nothing down the alleyway. Only a bunch of papers were scattered unto the ground.

"Hmph." She shrugged and turned back to glare at the door, trying to make Demarco come out faster. Another crashing noise came from her left and she whipped her head around to see nothing there. "What the hell." She mumbled, now standing up straight. Something told her to not head down in that direction, but she just felt weird hearing noises and not knowing what it was exactly.

"I swear, if there are guards in that direction. Imma cut their balls off and feed it to Demarco for dinner." Amalia clenched her teeth in sheer annoyance as she headed down the alleyway at a slow pace. A fallen piece of wood was to her right, and she picked it up, raising it above her head in case anything was to pop out from around the corner. "Who's there?" She shouted, taking very small steps forward. When she heard no answer she stuck her head around the corner to see nothing. "Guess it was nothing." Amalia laughed to herself and turned around to smack right into a hard chest.

She screamed and jumped back to see an amused Demarco standing there with a strange look in his eyes. "Don't do that. You scared me half to death." He didn't respond, but instead motioned for her to follow him. "Umm.." It was an awkward silence, even though Amalia tried many times to strike up a conversation. "Well…what did you and Antonio discuss." She prodded.

"You know. Important matters." He responded, ending the conversation right there.

Something wasn't right. Before Demarco had entered his friends shop he had been responsive and answered all the questions that she had asked him. Now he seemed to be uninterested in her speaking at all. "Are you alright?"

"I am fine Amalia. Why do you ask?"

"Well for one, you kind of stopped talking, and two I'm pretty sure we've been walking around in circles because that is the second time that I've seen that old woman and her dog sitting on the bench." She expressed while pointing to the woman.

Demarco stopped in his tracks and laughed lightly. "I did not notice."

"Yeah.." She dragged on and rolled her eyes, taking a large step away from him. "Can we just get home because my feet are really hating me at the moment." He flashed a toothy smile and grabbed her hand, dragging her in the correct direction of his house. "Ow! That really hurts you know." She added, trying to twist her wrist out of the vice grip that he had on it. Demarco opened the door to his home and let go of her wrist when he saw two men standing in the middle of his room.

"Demarco. How good it is to see you." A man said, getting up from the couch to give him a friendly hug. Both men exchanged greetings with Demarco and stood back just to notice her. "And who might this be. A new courtesan."

Amalia turned her nose up in disgust and fumed in her spot as all three men just laughed it up. Oh how much she just wanted to wipe the grins right off of their faces. "No I'm not a courtesan. But I will be the lady that kicks your ass when need be." The man with a dark blue painters hat and chin length hair stopped laughing and approached her with anger clearly written on his face. "Watch who you're talking to woman. I could have you easily arrested." He growled raising a hand to slap her. Before it came in contact with her face, Demarco grabbed his hand, holding him back. "What are you doing?" The man hissed grabbing his hand back.

"It is not right to hit a woman. Especially one that is defenseless." He responded, holding back the man from trying to hit her again. "DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM!" The man screamed, clearly ignoring Demarco.

Instead of getting angry like Amalia should've done, she laughed placing her hands on her hips. "You are a funny man." She started, getting into his face and held back the urge to spit on his unattractive face. "I can have you killed." He breathed, gripping her on her shoulder as hard as he could. Amalia didn't flinch at all, but just smirked and ripped her shoulder from his hand harshly. She moved past him, purposely hitting his shoulder out of the way. Demarco's laugh flooded her ears as she stomped up the stairs clearly frustrated with how she handled that.

"If I ever get my hands on him…" Amalia stopped to growl under her breath, throwing herself unto the bed face first.

"Damn that man."

**OoOoOo**

"I can't take this anymore. Staying inside this house has proved my insanity." She couldn't take it anymore. Amalia had woken up in the middle of the night, bored out of her mind. The past few days Demarco had been out of the house more times than she could count, and each time he told her to stay inside and not leave. He didn't own her. Why should she listen to what he says and stay inside like some trapped mouse. To hell with that.

If she couldn't be free right now, what makes you think that she would be free later. Instead of sitting there she threw the covers off of herself. There wasn't really any bags that she could take to put her belongings in, but she instead grabbed a large basket. As quickly as she could she stuffed the basket with all of her clothes, making sure to fold them neatly so that all of them could fit. Of course she didn't buy all the clothes herself. Demarco had been kind enough to buy her clothing, but even with his nice hospitality she still didn't like the fact that he tied her down.

For once she felt married to a possessive man, which she indeed did not appreciate at all. As she finished packing up her stuff and some food from the cupboard downstairs, Amalia changed into a dark white tunic and dark brown pants, with brown boots. It was comfortable enough to travel in, plus people would mistake her for a guy if she pulled the hood up on the tunic. It would make for easy travel. People wouldn't think twice about a man traveling by himself, but a woman would make things totally different. A groan could be heard upstairs, making Amalia's blood run cold. If Demarco caught her here, he would surely tie her down from trying to escape. "Dammit." She grumbled, gathering a bunch of florins off of the table that was in the kitchen.

He shouldn't mind her taking the florins. He probably didn't need it anyway. Amalia left as quickly as possible, sticking to the shadows to avoid being spotted. A bunch of guards passed by arguing with each other, and didn't spare a glance in her direction making her happy. Maybe she could get out of the city unspotted.

Just her luck she saw Demarco's front door open, making her squeal mentally, and push back further into the darkness. She watched as he exited the house, glancing around with anger clearly written on his face.

If he ever caught her right now, he would definitely report her to the guards for robbery. Amalia didn't stay very long, but instead ran towards the gates, making it there as fast as she could. A bunch of horses stood there just asking to be stolen, which she took up on their offer. A white stallion neighed at her as she approached, but calmed down as she stroked its mane. "Good boy…or girl. Whichever."

Mounting took longer than she expected, but once she did, yelling could be heard in the distance. She turned around to see Demarco running towards her yelling for her to stop. "Shit!" She tugged on the reigns as hard as she could, making sure to hold on tightly to her basket as the horse took off at a lightning speed. "Ack! Slow down you stupid horse." Of course the thing had no idea what she was saying, but kept going faster making sharp turns that almost threw her off. Another pair of hooves could be heard on the ground making its way towards her.

As you could guess, Demarco was right behind her, quickly catching unto her tail. Amalia could feel panic rise because for one she had a crazy man on her tail yelling for her to stop, and two she had no idea where Monteriggioni was. Instincts kicked in, telling her to make a sharp turn right, in which she did and headed up the path. The further she got the less she heard Demarco until she could not see him behind her. A breath of relief passed through her lips as she felt that the worse was over. For now at least.

**OoOoOo**

Morning came faster than expected, and Amalia was as tired as the horse. She didn't know how long that she had been traveling for, but it put a big toll on her. More than once had her eyes started drooping, but the sheer fear of falling of the horse and getting trampled kept her awake. She was determined to get to Monteriggioni as quick as possible, but her horse just stopped. Even when she tried pulling on the reigns it just wouldn't budge. Growling she got off of the horse and stroked its mane, hoping that maybe that little bit of affection would keep the horse going, but it just stood there staring at her. "Fine. Don't move. Stupid horse." Amalia started walking away, but stopped as she felt a nudge in her back.

She turned around to stare at the horse, who would not stop touching her back with its nose. "Alright. I guess you're traveling with me then." Rolling her eyes she grabbed the reigns and led the horse in the direction of where the path kept winding. After walking for a good mile or so, Amalia's stomach started growling, and she couldn't help but blush, even though nobody was around. The bread and cheese that she had taken from Demarco's kitchen sounded very good right about now. She stopped the horse and stood there while taking out the bread as carefully as she could trying not to drop it. Placing the cheese inside the bread, Amalia took a bite out of it, grinning at the taste.

Never had dry bread and cheeses tasted so good to her. She licked her lips and ate as quickly as she could making a mental note to eat as much as she could once she arrived to Mario's villa. Up in the distance she saw a looming wall which made her get excited. Moving back more to take a look at it, her heart raced as she figured that she had finally made it. Without remembering that her horse had been resistant to her riding her, Amalia jumped on and pulled the reigns hard. "Come on you old horse. Start moving!"

The horse didn't even twitch which made her growl. "Let's see how nice you are when I eat an apple in front of you." She got off and made a beeline for the wall with the horse tagging behind her. For the love of peaches! Why the hell was the horse moving when she was not riding it. Amalia growled more and more as the horse was now dashing next to her, almost passing her a couple of times. "I swear everyone hates me."

**OoOoO**

Monteriggioni wasn't as she had expected. It was gloomy, dirty and stank more than a dogs feces. And trust me, dog feces smells pretty bad. The puddles were never ending as she stepped around them trying to avoid sinking mud holes that seemed to pop up everywhere. Had people never heard of personal hygiene? Amalia scrunched her noise in disgust as she passed by a man who looked like he hadn't taken a bath in ages.

"Yuck." She stuck her tongue out and maneuvered away from him, glad that she no longer had to smell something so bad. Up ahead she saw a mansion that looked anything but. The windows on the first floor were boarded up and the wood looked rotted, as if it had been eaten out by termites. Amalia shuddered visibly as she walked up the stairs leading to the mansion. Somewhere in her head Amalia knew that this was Mario's Villa, but for some reason something inside of her hoped that it wasn't. She knew that she shouldn't be complaining, because at least it was a place to live.

She couldn't really complain about that, could she?

The door was open which she assumed that she should take as an invite. Walking in cautiously, Amalia called out hoping that someone would hear her and come running down. "Hello." She called for the third time, making a right into a room that had a model of the town. Diagonally across from the town model was a desk with a large book sprawled out across the desk. Behind it was a large chest that had a bunch of books and candles next to it.

Seeing that no one was in the room she exited and went out the front door. _Maybe someone's around back. _Walking around the mansion was like trudging through mud and…well mud. It wasn't really pleasant at all. Her shoes that Demarco had bought (even thought they were ugly), were getting dirty, but you couldn't really tell because they were dark brown boots. Around back (in her opinion) looked worse than the front. It was still boarded, but the boards were hanging off. As she walked closer, talking could be heard.

She faintly heard Ezio's voice, along with another. Deciding to get closer she stood with her back to the wall next to the door. She took in a sharp breath and looked inside to see Ezio talking to a man, whose back was to her. Amalia felt a little bad for eavesdropping on their conversation, but she needed to wait for them to end their conversation so she could make her presence known.

It didn't exactly go according to plan. Her hood had got caught on a loose nail making her curse under her breath. The curse wasn't what made them know that someone was there. It was the fact that she turned around to untangle the hood. When she turned around a large cockroach was on the wall, making her eyes bulge out of her head. Amalia screamed and quickly covered her mouth as she realized her mistake. _Shit. _There wasn't really anywhere to hide, so Amalia decided to run around to the front, but was noticed as she heard Ezio yell for her to stop.

He chased her, but Amalia didn't know why she kept running. Ezio knew who she was, kind of. More like Federico knew who she was. She had only encountered Ezio once or twice as she stayed at the villa, but he didn't personally know her. Fear crept its way into her bones, because even though she knew that she could trust Ezio, she didn't know if he could trust her.

Sure she had been the random woman that had been staying at the villa, but that didn't necessarily mean that he should trust her right away. "Come back here!" Amalia made a sharp left, but then realized that it was pointless to run. Of course Ezio would find her anywhere. Wasn't he the reason that she had came here in the first place.

With that thought Amalia skidded to a stop and waited for the impact that never came. Instead a white robbed Ezio came around and stood in front of her. "Who are you, and why were you listening to our conversation?"

Amalia smirked at his questions. She technically listening to his conversation, but just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Well…maybe not so much. In his perspective he would've assumed that she was listening, but she was more looking for him. "Answer my questions." He yelled with an icy tone. Instead of talking Amalia removed her hood making him gasp. Her eyes locked unto his, and she shyly smiled.

"Amalia.." Ezio's shock lasted longer than it should've, but she was glad that he didn't hit her for sneaking around. "What are you doing here?" His head titled, which made a familiar face pop up in her head. "Travels.." She responded, telling everything, but leaving out certain things. Amalia couldn't really exactly tell him what she was doing here, because that would lead to more questions and raise suspicions.

"Why?" By then Mario made himself known and stood next to Ezio, looking at her questionably. "And who might this be _nipote_?" He asked, not really sure if he could trust her or not.

"This is Amalia Salvatore de Luca. She was a guest at my father's villa before he…" That sentence put a damper on her mood, in which she looked at the ground, sadness now washing over her. "Federico knew her more than I did though." He added while looking at her through the corner of his eye also making hinting at the fact that he wasn't so sure if he could trust her. "Look," She started, confidence now taking over as she looked at the both of them. "I' m here because I have nowhere else to go, and I figured that maybe I could be of some help."

"The position that I'm in right now isn't the greatest, as you may think that I was eavesdropping, but I came through the front door and no one seemed to be out there. That's when I decided to come around back and see if anyone was there. Then I saw a bug and screamed…and you know the rest…" She trailed off hoping that maybe they would believe her and accept her as their friend.

Ezio squinted at her, as if not sure if he should believe her, but the doubt soon wore off. He motioned for her to follow making Amalia glad that he didn't question any further. Mario and Ezio led her into through the front door, telling her that there was a spare bedroom upstairs. "You'll find it down the hall, first door on the right." Amalia bowed numerous times, but was stopped as Mario put a hand on her shoulder. A light blush appeared on her cheeks in which she quickly covered by turning away and making her way upstairs.

Just like he had said, first door on the right was empty. The room was much better than what Demarco had, and she was glad that she didn't have to share a bed anymore. You kind of get tired of being in the same bed with someone, especially when they constantly roll over on you in the middle of the night, crushing your ribs in the process. Her clothes were gone quickly, leaving her in a dark blue nightgown, which was made of a soft material that made her smile. It was soft enough to make her eyes start dropping as she lowered herself unto the bed that was nicely made.

Getting under the covers, she shivered at the sudden cold at the fact that no one had been on the bed, but her body heat soon warmed her up. Amalia soon fell asleep peacefully, thankful that she had found Mario's villa and that they had not turned her away at all.

A/N: Okay so the ending was kind of bad, but hopefully you enjoyed the story nonetheless. :) Next update will be soon.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Hey guys! Sorry for the long wait, but things haven't been working upstairs in my head properly. I just couldn't come up with something until inspiration hit me like a ton of bricks. So here's what came about…Also because I became rusty with the story line (why the fuck did it happen all of a sudden. Especially now…xP), I have used the powerful website of Youtube to get my memory back. The storyline will be affected, because of the fact that Amalia is now written into it, so if things don't go exactly the way it did in the game, please don't bash me for it. It's called FANFICTION for a reason, a fan that rights a fiction about subject a or b (Durr).**

**The storyline won't be affected that much, but there will be stuff here and there that you will notice that wasn't in the game, or stuff may have been removed for the sake of my sanity, because writing the entire story into a fanfiction will pick my brain to the point where I will start foaming at the mouth. So for the sake of everyone…this is how it'll go.**

**Disclaimer: I only own the ear wax in my ear and the dirt under my fingernails…so don't hate.**

**OoOoOo**

The sun peered through the window, landing on her pale face which made her groan as her eyes opened to the blinding sun. She squinted and placed a palm over her eyes to shield them from the sun, as she got up to close the blinds that had been opened. Rubbing at her eyes a bit somewhat took the sleep out of her eyes, but when she stumbled over the covers that had been thrown off of the bed, that had definitely gotten her up. Curses flew through the air as she picked herself off of the floor and dressed herself in under two minutes. It was her fault that she had tripped over the duvet, but she couldn't help but curse even more at her stupidity. "If anyone ever saw that I tripped over that, that would be the most embarrassing thing ever." She grumbled, finally tucking in the last of the duvet into the bed frame to keep it from hanging. As she finished her hand brushed against the side of her leg, and she remembered that that had been the leg that had been burned in the fire. She couldn't help, but pull back the clothing to see the dark lines that ran up all the way into her inner thigh.

At the thought of her leg, it brought back memories of Federico, and how he had risked his life to save her. Why did he have to die so soon? The man hadn't even been married yet, or had the chance to have children, but that was all taken away from him in the blink of an eye. She sighed as she exited her bedroom door and headed down the stairs to see where everyone exactly was. Silence had engulfed the villa and she was curious to know where Mario and Ezio were. At the moment she didn't see anyone in the room next to where she was standing, but instead she headed outside to see if anyone was there. Upon leaving the villa, and bounding down the steps, she heard Mario's tone getting very icy as he talked to Ezio.

"But nipote, I have given you these skills that you might better prepared to strike against our enemies…" Mario trailed off, not so sure as to why Ezio was acting the way he was.

"And if they find me, I will." Ezio replied with a nod of his head.

"You want to leave, Ezio?" Mario said, now getting completely fed up with him. "To throw away everything your father fought and died for?" He yelled now getting angrier by the second. "To deny your heritage? Fine! Come vuoi Arrivederci e buona fortuna! (So be it. Goodbye and good luck). Mario stormed off, and bumped shoulders with Amalia as she stood there, utterly confused as to why Mario was so mad.

"Uncle, wait-" Ezio started, now confused as much as Amalia was. "Why is he so upset?" Ezio asked, directing the question to the thief that was standing a couple of feet away from him.

The thief stepped forward, arms crossed with an amused expression on his face. "How can he not be? Vieri's been harassing us ever since you first arrived. To be expected, I suppose. Given his heritage…" The thief told him. Amalia watched as the thief walked closer to Ezio to better emphasize his point. Ezio turned his head in the direction of where Mario had stormed off to and his eyes made contact with Amalia's. There was no emotion behind it, but instead Ezio broke contact and started walking towards her. She awkwardly stood there, not entirely sure what to say as he came closer towards her. "I trust that you had a good night, Amalia." He asked politely, now standing in front of her. She shrugged, but thanked him for the bed as to not be rude at his kind hospitality, especially after what had happened yesterday. "Is Mario alright?" She found herself asking, and looking up at him as he had a good couple inches on her. "I must speak to him right now, but…in the meantime you must stay inside the villa. I believe that you owe me an explanation, later, as to why you have shown up now."

Bastard had to just have the last word. Ezio stalked off towards the villa, leaving Amalia standing there, wondering what in the hell she was supposed to tell him. 'Tell him the truth,' a voice whispered. She turned around scared out of her mind. What in the hell had just spoken to her? Surely she must be going crazy to have heard a voice in the middle of the day randomly. Maybe it was just the sleep that was talking. Standing there seemed very stupid because for one she seemed out of place, so she ran in the direction of where Ezio had disappeared to. She assumed that he had went to where he and Mario had been speaking to each other the previous day, and her instincts had been proved right.

Ezio was standing there talking to a thief when she entered inside the room. "Are you headed somewhere?"

Ezio glared at her from the corner of his eye as the thief continued to talk, as if not interrupted by her. "You will find what you need at the stables." The man told him. Amalia raised an eyebrow at Ezio, which he ignored completely. "So…" She trailed off, now standing next to him. "Can I come with?"

"No!"He told her, walking around her to head to the front door.

Amalia pouted and crossed her arms. "Aww, come on! You're no fun at all." He gave her a dirty look from the corner of his eye and continued walking away from her. She ran up to catch with him as he exited the villa and headed in the direction of the gates. "I do not know you, or your intentions. Federico was the only person to know you in the short amount of time that you stayed with my family and I, at our villa back in Firenze. Just because Federico liked you, doesn't mean that I have to like you too."

"I just was wondering…" She mumbled, now utterly sad at how blunt he was with her. "Where are you headed exactly?"

"San Gimignano." He responded, his tone now bored completely. Amalia froze mid step, now thanking her brain for asking him where he was headed. She honestly shouldn't have been shocked at all, because for some strange reason she knew his life like the back of his hand. It was a little frightening to see pictures of Ezio's life flash behind her eyes, but she quickly shook her head, hoping that Ezio would think nothing of it. "Uh…I think I might pass on following you." She inched back a couple of feet and turned around, rushing back in the direction of where she had came. "Why do you stop now. Is there something that you aren't telling me?" He questioned, while catching up to her and grabbing unto her wrist. Amalia felt a jolt of fear come over her as she thought about going back there and seeing an angry Demarco standing there.

She honestly wouldn't be surprised if the man showed up here demanding to see her. She had indeed left him on a whole, and he probably had a rough idea of where she was exactly headed, seeing as though she had asked him more than once if he knew how to get here. "There is isn't there."

"No…I-I just don't like that place. It gives me the chills. How about you go do your job, and I'll stay back here. Hm." She smiled at him just to make it seem like her little lie was convincing, and bolted straight from Ezio the second he let go of her wrist.

"Crap, Crap, Crap, Crap, Crap!" Amalia was fuming as she stepped into her room that Mario had given to her the night before. How was she supposed to deal with this now. For one, Ezio had a feeling that she was hiding something, in which she was, and secondly he had wanted to talk wth her when he got back. What exactly was she supposed to say? Tell him that a crazy madman had taken her in and then she escaped here to come and find him.

"Fuck." She breathed, trying to calm herself down as she sat stiffly on the bed, instead of her nervous pacing back and forth in front of the window that overlooked the muddy courtyard. "I need to take a nap. Maybe that'll clear my mind." Before Amalia could even get settled into bed nicely, her stomach grumbled loudly. How could she have forgotten to eat this morning? "I wonder if there are any maids in this house. I didn't even see a kitchen coming inside here."

For the next ten minutes, she explored the house, looking to see if she could find a kitchen, or just anything to eat, but she couldn't find anything. It was like this house was empty to begin with, and it seemed even emptier when there was no food inside. Amalia yelled out loud, clearly frustrated with the lack of food inside of this villa. She figured that she might as well try and find something outside of the villa, perhaps a restaurant of some sort. Amalia wondered if they had things like that back then.

**OoOoOo**

Tired. That's exactly how she felt at the moment. It was if something had torn inside of her and eaten any remaining food that was left in her stomach. How was she supposed to survive if nothing was inside of her stomach. It was even worse because Ezio had not returned yet with Mario and it was nearing nightfall. She had spent the entire day roaming around the villa to get accustomed to it, but the thought of food never once left her mind. Surely Ezio must be doing this to her on purpose, but she didn't have any evidence that he was so she let it drop. At the moment Amalia was lying on the ground in front of the training ground, staring up at the skies as it turned from a pretty shade of orange to that of purple and pink's.

Footsteps were unbeknownst to her ears as she continued to gaze at the sky. A shadow soon was looming over her and she covered part of her eyes at the sudden darkness. "Hey. I was trying to watch the sunset you know." She whined, not really taking in who was exactly standing in front of her. "I believe that you are blocking my way, Signorina." Amalia took her hands away from shielding her face to notice that Ezio was standing right in front of her.

"Thank the lord that you're here." She yelled while getting up and brushing off her cloak. "I am hungry and haven't eaten all day, waiting for your ass to get back here, but guess what you take forever in a day to just get from San Gimignano to here. What the hell man?" Ezio's eyebrows rose in annoyance and he crinkled his nose in disgust.

"There is a kitchen here Amalia. Have you checked inside there for food?" He asked, turning away from her to make his way towards the thief's that were standing a little ways off from them.

"I'm not that stupid alright. Give me some credit. Of course that would be the first place I'd look." She mumbled, now following Ezio like a shadow. "And here he is! Our campione, Ezio!" Mario boomed, startling Amalia as she saw that he popped up out of nowhere. "All hail Ezio!" The thieves yelled in unison while raising their cups into the air. "I see you've wasted no time starting the celebration." Ezio replied happily, removing his hood so that his face could be shown.

"And why not? You've done us a great service, nipote (nephew)! With Vieri dead la Toscana (Tuscany) will grow quiet once more." Mario paused for effect before continuing. "Do you know what that means?" He questioned looking around at all the thieves standing near him.

"Basta lavorare! (No more work!)" One thief replied, jabbing his friend next to him in the shoulder while having a wide grin plastered unto his face. "Si passa tutto il giorno a bere! (We can drink all day!)" The one that had gotten hit in shoulder replied, bring his cup up higher than his head. "E a puttane! (And with whores!)"

A silence washed over them and Amalia walked in front of the thief that had made the comment and punched him as hard as she could in his arm. "Is that how you think all of us woman are. That we just whore ourselves out because we have nothing else better to do with our lives." She said angrily, teeth now clenched in anger. "Well I wouldn't really say that you count for a woman." A man replied, being completely blunt with her.

If steam could come out of her ears, Amalia would have been a boiled kettle by now, with how angry she was getting by the second. "What it's true." The thief that had made the comment about whores said while shrugging his shoulders. All the surrounding men started laughing, making Amalia wish at that moment that she had a knife to just slice their throats for thinking so lowly of woman.

The laughter had died down, and Mario placed a firm hand on Ezio's shoulder. "Come, Ezio. Walk with me." Amalia watched behind brown locks as Mario and Ezio disappeared into the villa. Her eyes narrowed and waited until they were gone completely from her vision.

Amalia had a feeling that this was a really, really bad idea, but something just forced her to eavesdrop on their conversation. It was like something in the back of her head was telling her that she needed to listen to what they were saying. After successfully sneaking away from the thieves, she looked around to make sure that no one was watching her as she ran towards the back of the villa. Light flooded from the back of the doorway and she saw Ezio standing next to Mario as they stared at a wall in front of them. Quickly, without making so much as a sound, she held her cloak to make sure the fluttering didn't attract their attention as she stooped down next to the door, out of sight.

"….not your father's work. Someone else has translated it."

"Leonardo Da Vinci. A friend."

Amalia's breath hitched at the familiar name. Why was Ezio talking about him and what were they discussing before when Mario had said someone else had translated it. She listened pressed up closer to the door and listened, hoping to figure out exactly what they were discussing. "Do you see the way the words cross from one page to the next?"

"There's something underneath it all. Some kind of map." A pause engulfed her ears, but she couldn't pick up what was said after because Ezio's voice was too low. "Your father and I managed to make out bits of a prophecy scrawled across the pages. It was written by an Assassin like us who long ago held a 'Piece of Eden'. His name was Altair…

_Altair? And what is a Piece of Eden._Confusion etched her face as the next couple of sentences that she tried to hear was muffled. "…exactly why we collected these pages."

"…All of it. I"ll start with the page I took from Vieri. Leonardo will decode it for us."

"Dammit," She whispered, clearly frustrated that she had missed a good chunk of the conversation. "Also, Uncle….About Amalia."

"What of her nipote?" She could hear movements in the room before talking could once be heard again. "Something happened in San Gimignano that I must say, found very interesting."

"Well speak. Do not keep an old man waiting." Mario replied.

"I…overheard a man speaking of an Amalia."

Amalia's eyes went wide as one man's name flashed through her head. Demarco. "I am not sure if that man is talking about the one that is staying here, but I stayed just to hear what he was saying."

"Did he say anything that might say she is a spy?" It was if Amalia was in the room, watching as Mario's forehead creased in worry. "No..No! Nothing of that Uncle. It is just that he said that he is traveling here to seek out an Amalia. Saying that once he finds her, that she will be his forever. He spoke of taking her in and giving her nothing but hospitality, and once he had turned his back on her, the moment that he was most vulnerable at, she takes his gifts, money and leaves."

Amalia didn't stick around to hear what Mario was going to say, but she instead ran around to the front of the villa so that she could head inside to her room. Ezio would definitely come up here after his conversation with Mario. After hearing the news about what Demarco might do, Amalia started to panic. He could be headed here right now, probably conjuring up ways to torture her, or thinking of other ways that he could be paid back. And for some reason, a thought in her mind knew that it had nothing to do with actual working in the kitchen or tending to his house.

"I don't want to be a whore!" Amalia yelled, now tugging at her hair, clearly skittish at the moment. She was pacing around the room, hand under her chin, trying to come up with a plan that could definitely be full proof. At the moment, nothing came to mind, so she opted to lie face first into the pillows hoping that she could smother herself to death without having someone else do it for her.

Because her face was buried deep into the pillow she didn't hear the knocking and opening of her door. It wasn't until she felt the bed sinking in that she got up to turn around and see who the person was. There standing in front of her was Mario, Ezio and one other thief that looked a little too annoyed to her liking.

"Heh.." She breathed out, crawling backwards until her head hit the backboard of the bed. "Is there something that you aren't telling us, Amalia?" In her mind she pictured herself shaking her head, but what the three of them had seen was her nodding. Before she could take back what she had done, Ezio had grabbed unto her wrist, tightening it so that it was in a death grip. "Okay…I'll tell you. But it's not really something that I'm hiding."

Ezio titled his head making Amalia remember Demarco who was the man that had really gotten her into this situation. "What do you mean by that?" He questioned, standing up and dragging her to her feet as well. "There's this man named Demarco Costa." She paused so that she could untangle Ezio's death grip from around her wrist, finally giving her back some feeling into it. "I had met him when I had collapsed in San Gimignano. He had been kind enough to give me a place to stay and food to eat, but one day when he had visited his friend Antonio, he had returned seeming a little off. To be real, Demarco had been a really nice man who I wouldn't have mind dating, but after that day he had come out things just didn't seem right about him."

She sighed and turned around to try and gather her thoughts. She should really leave out the part about two men visiting her, which she knew who they were, but didn't really say anything. The two men that had been inside Demarco's home that day had been Vieri de Pazzi and his father, Francesco. There was no doubt in her mind that Demarco had something to do with being a Templar, but she couldn't just give that information away to them. What if they accused her of lying and said that she was a spy! What the hell was she supposed to do then?

"Anyway…" she started, but was interrupted by a knock on the door. "Yes Come in." Mario called. The door slowly creaked open to reveal a woman dressed in all brown, with an extravagant gold hairpiece. "Sir Mario. One of the men from downstairs wishes to speak with you."

"Tell them that I am busy at the moment!" He told her, making a wave like gesture indicating that she should leave. "But sir! The man tells me that it is very important."

"Can it not wait for a few more minutes? I will be down shortly." The woman nodded, and Mario turned back towards her telling her to finish the story quickly. "As I was saying…I knew that I had to leave because something inside of me told me that something bad was going to happen if I didn't leave. So I packed my clothes, some of his money as well as food and left on horseback. He had chased me for a good while, but I think that he got tired and just decided to turn back around.

"I believe that this man is after you though. I overheard him and someone else speaking that he was going to come here and look for you." Ezio told her, even though she already knew from eavesdropping on them. To make it seem more believable though, she made her eyes widen and her jaw drop. She sat quickly on the bed, trying to "calm" herself down, but really couldn't "It is okay Amalia. We will do everything to protect you, but you need to tell us the actual truth. There are still some empty holes in this story that you tell us." Ezio said, not having any type of anger on his face or in his tone. "How could you stop him though? You can't just not welcome him into the city! That would just be too suspicious."

Mario sighed as he and Ezio exchanged looks with each other. "I believe that it would be better if she stuck close with you Ezio. It would be easier to protect her if she's closer, than if she stayed here in the villa."

Ezio nodded, and Amalia smiled, thankful that Ezio hadn't said now to her sticking close to him. "Well signorina, I am headed to Florence shortly. Maybe it would be best if you accompanied me on my travels." She smiled and did something that she thought that she would never do. She hugged Uncle Mario and then hugged Ezio, but their hugged lasted a little longer because Amalia couldn't but help stay close to that hardened chest of his.

"Well it is settled then. Amalia shall be traveling with you for the time being. As for you Amalia…I think it would be best that you train a little before you go with Ezio. Troubles might come your way and I want you to be prepared if anything were to happen." She nodded and turned to look at the thief that was standing in front of her. Mario continued to talk as if the hugs hadn't been initiated. "This is my best swordsmen Adamo. He will train you tonight, for tomorrow morning you will be rising up early to reach Florence as soon as the sun comes up. Even with Amalia's smile on, you could definitely see how fake it was. She was grinning widely, a little too much, and her hands twitched at her side. Of course she was scared to train, but it was for the best. She couldn't have Ezio standing out there defending her all the time. It would be for the best, and she would just have endure it for tonight.

"Come, signorina. We have much work to do."


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Yes…Here I am again to face off my enemy, Masaki4EverDead. Both she and I are in a heated competition and I am determined to win. This girl *cough* has challenged me to the ultimate battle. A race against the clock as we both rapidly type up chapters to please our viewers. **

**What's at stake;**

**If I win: She must buy me two items from hot topic**

**If she wins: I must buy her two Snapple peach tea's, and a popcorn at lunchtime.**

**Then, because the competition is a fierce one, we must go to Applebee's and celebrate. The requirements that we must have is, **

**-Two fully posted chapters, more than 4000 (EXCLUDING DISCLAIMER AND AUTHORS NOTE) **

**- Must be posted by Wednesday 12:00 midnight…otherwise YOU LOSE! BWAHA!**

**Disclaimer: Assassin's Creed II characters do not belong to me, but I do own any OC's! **

**OoOoOo**

Two years. You call two years fucking soon. Mario specifically said that Ezio was traveling soon. Soon **does not **mean two years later in 1478. Amalia fumed as she followed behind Ezio who was looking for Leonardo Da Vinci's shop. Her mood should have been that of glee and excitement knowing that she was meeting the most famous painter of this time, but what was she doing. She was fuming by herself while pouting. Ezio had found it very amusing, but Amalia just wanted to smack that smirk right off of his face.

Leaning up against the wall, she watched as Ezio knocked on his door and entered without even bothering to let the man say come in. "Rude _bastardo._"She mumbled, making sure that it was loud enough that he would hear. Ezio gave her an amused look and entered, motioning for her to follow. She shut the door behind him and stood next to him as Leonardo turned around, shock clearly written on his face. "Ezio…? You are still alive!" Leonardo said gripping his elbow shortly, and then letting go.

"Look at this place! The past two years have been kind to you." Ezio said smiling.

"But you are not the same at all, are you….?" Ezio looked down and shook his head as what had happened to him in the past two years washed over his face for only just a second. Amalia looked at him kindly, but then shook off the concern as she remembered that she should be mad at him, and for a good reason to. "And who might this be?" Leonardo asked, looking over Ezio's shoulder. "What a fine woman you have picked up along the way Ezio."

Amalia smiled and took it as a compliment, but shot a nasty glare at Ezio as the slightest twitch of his lips indicated that he wanted to grin. "My name is Amalia Salvatore De Luca, and I have been accompanying Ezio for the past **two years**!" She emphasized hoping to get her point across that leaving soon does not mean two years. "What she is trying to say," Ezio started, but then burst out laughing. "Is that she is mad at me and wants to make it publicly known that she is."

"Leonardo. I was hoping that you might be able to help me with something." He said, touching Leonardo on the shoulder in a friendly gesture. "Anything for you, my friend." He responded without any hesitancy at all. Ezio pulled out a scroll and Leonardo's face beamed in delight as he gently took the scroll from his hands. "Aha! You've found another one! How exciting!"

Amalia giggled at his childish antics, and Leonardo shot her a grin that made her cheeks turn a deep shade of red. She watched as Leonardo went towards his desk with Ezio in tow. Placing the scroll on the desk, he opened it and stared at it long on hard before speaking quickly. "Hmmmm. This one is tricky to break….Clever in its use of ancient languages. Maybe if I just….Oh….Oh! It seems to be a manual of sorts for different assassination techniques."

"May I see it-?" Ezio asked, but was soon cut off by a overly excited painter.

"Wait! What's that?" He asked, standing up to put his hand under his chin. "It's not so much a design this time…Just a series of sketches. Hmmmm. What to make of all this…"

"Are…you okay Leonar-"Amalia jumped back, frightened as Leonardo's quiet voice soon become loud. He turned to look at her, and a grin broke through. "Hoho! Of course! And why not! What an inspired idea!" He voiced, grabbing Ezio by the wrist that held his hidden blade his father once used to use. Amalia's eye twitched painfully as she watched Ezio converse with Leonardo, like he had not just scared the living daylights out of the woman. "Can you make it for me – while I try what's in that manual fragment."

"Take it. I'll have my assistant set up some dummies for you to practice with –Eh, Vincernzo!"

Ezio smiled and turned around. Amalia's eyes met his, but she quickly turned away not wanting to deal with him at the moment. "Amalia…please. Why do you continue to frown when you are much more prettier with a smile on your face." Ezio asked, arms outstretched as if he was going to bring her into an embrace. She side stepped, smirking as Ezio stumbled a little, not having her in his arms. "I am done with your flirtatious ways Auditore. I've know you for two years, and I know when you're using your techniques to make me blush." She stuck her tongue out at him and walked towards a couch that was sitting in front of the fireplace.

"Amalia…you must know that I did not mean to make you angry."

"Leave me alone Ezio. I've heard enough of your voice for one day. Why don't you just go outside and practice with your dummies. I'm sure both you and them have a lot in common; stuffed with crap, and just plain dumb." Ezio grabbed his chest, clearly hurt at her comment, but he did take her suggestion and exited the room, softly closing the door behind him. "Why do you continue to make fun of the boy?" Leonardo asked, not once lifting his head to look at her as he worked on decoding the page.

"Ah! He'll get over it. I'm sure he's used to it by now, you know me making fun of him constantly." She heard a deep chuckle as she threw her legs up onto the couch to get more comfortable. "So Amalia. Tell me, has Ezio been causing a great deal of trouble."

"Actually Ezizo has been causing a great deal of trouble. I'm always behind his back trying to clean up his messes; unbeknownst to him of course, his whores that he tends to sleep with are always coming back, asking about him. 'Is Ezio going to be back soon.' 'Aww he told me that he would come visit me soon. When is he coming back.' 'Aww Ezio!'." Leonardo laughed at my imitations of the girls that had been knocking on the villa's door one day. "Leonardo. If I had ten florins for every girl that Ezio has slept with…I would be absolutely rich by now."

"I'm sure you would be."

A silence engulfed them as the only thing that could be heard as the tinkering that was going on near Leonardo's desk. She listened as the man mumbled stuff to himself and worked as quickly as he could around the workshop. Why the hell did it take so long for Ezio to practice his techniques? What exactly had the two years taught him? If he couldn't finish practicing this fast, what makes you think that he'd be able to assassinate someone quickly. Without warning the door flew open, and in walked said man.

"I've done it. Come quickly!" Leonardo motioned for Ezio to come closer. "Take it. Try it!"

"Thank you Leonardo."

"_Non c'e di che_ (No problem)!" Ezio turned around to look at Leonardo's work, but then turned his head downward to look at the ground, as if it was the most interesting thing in the room. No one said anything for a minute or two, but Ezio broke the deafening silence. "There's someone I need to "see" while I'm here. I cannot approach him publicly…Would you know a way-"

"La Volpe." Leonardo whispered.

"The Fox." Ezio said, but was cut off by a loud shh that seemed to come from Leonardo's mouth.

Amalia fell of the couch as she heard Leonardo whisper that name. It was like a picture of that man flashed in front of her eyes as she saw nothing, but him and Ezio talking on top of a rooftop. She couldn't hear the words that were exchanged between the two, but she saw La Volpe was pointing somewhere behind Ezio. As soon as the vision came it disappeared and she found herself staring into the eyes of Ezio. "Are you alright, Amalia?" He asked, touching the back of her head to feel for any bruises.

"I'm find you old pervert. Get off of me."

"I guess you are fine now that you continue to tease me." She rolled her eyes and picked herself up off the ground to brush imaginary dust off of her clothes. "Well if you're done with tending to me, how about you continue your conversation with Leonardo." A smile sprung on Ezio's face as the man turned around to continue speaking with Leonardo. "Capisco (I understand). But do you know where a fox might roam…?"

"Perhaps, near the Mercato, where the thieves dwell…" Ezio nodded.

"_Sta'attento, amico_ (Be safe, my friend!)"

"Hey…so don't tell me you're going to go on a wild goose chase to go and find La Vople..Hmmm." She asked, now standing next to Leonardo. "Well…I must do that in order to gather some information. You are welcome to stay behind if it is too much for a woman like yourself."

"And just what are you trying to say, Ezio Auditore." He laughed in her face. No one laughs in Amalia's face, especially when it was someone like Ezio. How was she supposed to sleep at night knowing that this man was always going to be laughing at her? It just didn't sit right in her stomach and she was determined to get back at him for all the times he made fun of her without her actually getting the jokes.

"Come then." Ezio started walking towards the door, but Amalia turned around to look at Leonardo. "It was nice meeting you Leonardo. I hope that we may see each other soon." She shared a quick embrace with him, before running after an impatient Ezio who had already left the workshop, as she was taking too long.

"How did those two come to meet?" Leonardo thought, utterly confused as how they two of them could work together when they acted like children.

**OoOoOo**

"Are we there yet?" She asked

"No." He grumbled the first time.

"Are we there yet?" She asked once again.

"No." He said a little bit more forcefully as it was getting a little repetitive after a while.

"Are we there yet?" She asked, this time doing it just to annoy him.

"NO!" He yelled, this time turning around to glare at her. "I'll tell you when we get there ok!" Ezio started cursing in Italian and a small snort came out of her nose as a man bumped into Ezio, but then took off up the stairs right next to the square that they were now standing in. "What!"

"What is it pretty boy. Lost your pants?" She teased.

"No. My pouch, my Money!"

She watched as Ezio took off around the corner to chase after the man that had just pick pocketed him. "Oh…so you're just going to leave lil' 'ol me all by myself to handle the big world. Thanks so much Ezio." Amalia wasted no time in climbing the closest building, earning gasps from the group of people that were standing below, but she ignored it. As long as she stuck to the rooftops, away from the guards eyes, then she would be fine. She saw a flutter of white and red, and chased after it knowing that that was definitely Ezio. "You think that they'd have some inconspicuous outfit for Assassins, rather than a flashy uniform."

Ezio climbed up onto the roof in front of her, almost making her fall off the slippery tiling from how much he startled her. It wasn't long before the thief stopped on a small roof that Amalia swore looked like it was about to fall apart. Instead of jumping on top of the roof with both men, she decided to sit on the ledge of the one directly next to them.

"I really have no interest in hurting you. So give me back my money and we'll call it even." Ezio told him, stretching out his hand to try and claim back his pouch.

"Not so fast." A man said, popping up out of nowhere. She saw Ezio flinch a little bit from the sudden surprise, but she watched as he covered it up with turning his attention to the man. "What do you want? Who are you!"

"They call me many things. Murderer. _Tagilagole_ (Cutthroat). Thief. But you may call me La Volpe."

"At your service. Messer Ezio."

Amalia burst out laughing, and threw her head back. "What a conceited person you are La Volpe. Really! Cutthroat. I'm sure that no citizen on Florence would ever call someone else that as a nickname." La Volpe gave her a dirty look, which was also accompanied by Ezio's dirty look as well. "What!" She asked, shrugging a bit at how they were acting. "It's only the truth." She said, trying to defend herself, but failing miserably.

"Besides…how do you know his name." She asked with a raised eyebrow.

La Volpe laughed. "It Is my business to know everything in this city. Just like how your name is Amalia Salvatore de Luca." He said with a smirk on his face. Amalia's jaw dropped as she knew that this man had something up his sleeve. No one knew her name wherever they went, but this man just happens to conjure up a name out of thin air. "Isn't that why you're here?" He continued, as if he had not seen that the both of them had been surprised at his knowledge.

"Indeed. I need to find someone to know where he'll be before he even does."

"Who?" La Volpe asked, crossing his arms across his chest.

"Francesco de' Pazzi."

"There's word on the street of a caravan just arrive from Roma. A secret meeting at sunset tonight. You can learn something of Francesco's whereabouts there."

"Do you know where it is to be held." Ezio asked. A picture of the Santa Maria Novella flashed behind her eyes and she smirked knowing that she could easily beat them before they get there.

"_Ma Certo_ (Yes). Let me know where you're ready and we'll go. Oh yes. Here's your money." He grabbed the pouch from around the thief's waist and tossed it at Ezio, who caught it with ease. As La Volpe and Ezio jumped off of the side of the building, near the dock, Amalia turned in the other direction and headed straight for the Santa Maria Novella. She made sure that they couldn't see her as they had a race to see who could get there first, because she was sure if Ezio had seen her he would have asked questions as to how she had known where to go before La Volpe had even told them anything.

The church was actually quite tall when you came up close to it, and Amalia had to lean back just to take in all of the building. Smiling at herself and how stupid she might have looked, she climbed the house next to it and found herself coming in halfway through La Volpe and Ezio's conversation. "-Catacombs that run under the city. They'll lead you to a place where you can eavesdrop on the meeting."

"Grab that stone handle, turn it, then slide it down."

"Thank you for all your help, Volpe." Ezio said, turning towards the building to get a good look at it.

"_Buona Forutuna _(Good Luck)." La Volpe said, patting Ezio on the shoulder. Before he left though, La Volpe nodded at Amalia and then took off in a flutter of brown cloaks. "You know I'm not going down there with you." She told him, not really interested in roaming some dark catacomb below the church.

"I thought that you liked dark places like that?" He asked, fake confusion etching his face.

"No Ezio. I think that you're getting me confused with yourself. You're the one that likes dark warm places like that." She retorted hoping that he would catch her drift. Instead of responding he just smirked and jumped down from the building, landing softly on the ground without any problems at all.

"Come on. It'll be fun." He yelled, up towards the building. Amalia rolled her eyes as she jumped down the side of the building to land directly next to Ezio. "You better make this interesting or else when we get back to Leonardo…" She trailed off, wanting Ezio to fill in the blank for himself.

"Oh and….this isn't suspicious at all." She announced as the both of them huddled around the stone tablet, for him to slide it out and then down. The bottom part of the ground, under the skull, disappeared and only a black hole could be seen. "You expect me to crawl down a hole, blindly going down there might I add, when I have no idea what could be lurking down there. You're telling me that you want me to throw myself to the wolves?"

"It's not like I'm asking you to go into a den of lions." Ezio told her as he pushed her aside to lower himself down into the hole. "Yeah well when you get eaten by a dark brown bear, or maybe even a snake, please come crying to me so that I can see you and laugh in your face."

The last look she saw on Ezio's face before he completely disappeared was that of sheer annoyance. "The only thing I love to see on that face of yours Ezio."

**OoOoOo**

"_Grazie, Padre_ (Thank you, father) Bernardo?"

"It's all here. Swords. Staves. Axes. Armor. Bows. Our men will want for nothing."

"I take this gift to mean the Pope consents?" Amalia and Ezzio exchanged confused glances, as they listened closer to the meeting. A man in a dark red cloak walked out from the shadows and began to speak. "He gave his blessing to the operation…"as long as nobody is killed."

"We're all se for the Duomo in the morning _signore_. The bait's been laid, but it wasn't easy. His fool brother keeps changing his plans."

"Si. We'll need to be on hand to make sure Giuliano even gets out of bed for church tomorrow." Laughter filled the room, but Amalia didn't see how that was funny at all. "What is it jacapo? Do you think they suspect something?"

"Impossible. The Medici are too arrogant or too stupid to even notice. Likely a bit of both." A man who looked similar to Vieri, she assumed it to be Francesco, laughed along with a man next to him. There laughter was soon cut off by a man who seemed to have the most brains in the room. "Do not underestimate our enemies Francesco! Or have you already forgotten how your son was murdered?"

"We'll suffer no such surprises this time, Maestro. You have my word."

The man with the dark hood spoke again. "_Molto bene_ (Very well). I should be off. I've some other business to attend to before I return to Rome." He looked around the room and made eye contact with each man before continuing. "Gentlemen. Tomorrow, a new sun rises over Firenze. May the father of understanding guide us."

"May the father of understanding guide us." The rest of them said in unison. The meeting was adjourned and Ezio motioned that they leave. "So are they planning to kill the Medici family then?" She whispered as they found a way out of the tight spot that they were in. "I do believe that that is what their intentions are, but we must speak with La Volpe after this. Maybe he can give us some insight on this."

**OoOoOo**

Ezio crawled out of the catacombs first, and was then followed by Amalia. He grabbed her arm to help her up, but she shoo'ed it away, clearly annoyed at the fact that he was trying to help her. "I don't need your help, you stupid man."

"I was just trying to be a gentlemen." He defended, backing up so that she could have room to get out. "Yeah well stop being gentlemen….y. It's really a pain in my ass actually."

"Ah, there's La Volpe." Amalia pointed in his direction and Ezio turned around to look in that direction. As he walked over to go and talk to him, Amalia took the stone covering of the hole and placed it back over it, without too much trouble. " I know where Francesco will be and when, But…"

"What is it?"

"I overheard something…They have weapons, enough for a battalion . Even the Pope has given support!"

"Typical of Sixtus, but…What the hell are they planning?" La Volpe asked, sighing

"I couldn't understand the specifics. But it involves the Medici. And it begins tomorrow morning at the Duomo."

"The Medici will all be there for Sunday service…Along with the rest of Firenze. They're going to do it right in the middle of High Mass…"

"But it's also a chance for me to blend with the crowd, get close, and stop the madness."

"With my help of course!" Amalia said, butting in. Of course the both of them didn't like the fact that she had, but she wanted to make it known that she was of some use. "If they succeed..If we lose Lorenzo, and Firenze falls to the Pazzi…"

"It will not come to that. I promise. "

"I hope you're right."

Ezio stood up from his sitting position and walked over to Amalia. "We need to come up with a plan to stop this madness from happening. I assume that you can come up with something on the spot then." She placed a hand on her chin, thinking of something. The only idea that popped into her head at the moment was to warn Lorenzo of this supposed assassination, but how were they supposed to find him and warn him before tomorrow morning. It was already night time and she was sure that his guards would laugh after them if they ever tried to approach him.

"I'm not really sure, but you can definitely rule out trying to warn the Medici's of this attack. They probably wouldn't believe that someone would do that in the middle of high Mass."

Ezio nodded. "I guess the only thing that we can do is just prepare for the worst." Amalia agreed, but her stomach rumbling broke her thought process. "Before we start killing people…can we get something to eat. I'm hungry!" Ezio chuckled, and grabbed Amalia by the wrist. "Come then. We'll find a food stand."

"Aww Ezio you're too nice." She said sarcastically while ripping her wrist out of his grip. "You can talk to me, but don't touch."

"But I thought that you enjoyed our little touches that we seem to share." He said, teasing her back.

"You might seem to like it, but I get goose bumps just thinking about it."

"I do not know of these goose bumps," he said testing out the word on his tongue. It sounded a little weird though because of his accent, but she did have to say that it sounded sexy coming from him.

"You're lucky I like you Ezio."

"You know you would not be able to resist my charms." He laughed while running up ahead to escape here threats and beatings. "Yeah! You better keep running Auditore."

A/N: Sorry for the mistakes and stuff…I didn't have time to read it over and edit it. But thank you for reading..And a special thanks to BeachVampire17 for reviewing my chapters.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N Not really a big author's note today, but just want to thank my reviewers and everyone that's been reading this story. It means a lot when I check my story traffic to see A LOT of people reading this story. So continue reading because the adventure is not over yet. Also...I didn't exactly have time to Beta because there's this song that's been stuck in my head and I just can't think straight to edit. If any of you know It's summertime lovin, lovin the summer (time), from Regular Show...then you would know how annoying that song is and how much you just want to rip your hair out because it's stuck in your head.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Ezio *sniff*I only own him in my dreams….**

**OoOoOo**

Amalia trailed after Ezio, trying to keep her eyes on him as she stuffed her face with bread and an apple that he had bought earlier for her. She was going to buy it for herself with her own money, but Ezio was just being very stubborn and took it upon himself to pay for all the food. They had argued like a married couple on who was paying what, but in the end, like always, she always lost. No matter what she did to achieve the winner's circle, she always ended up getting kicked into the group of damsel in distress. She was no damsel in distress and if she was ever called one by anybody, besides Ezio, she would be sure that they would lose a leg or two.

"Can you slow down a bit? It's not exactly healthy for me to be eating while walking." She complained, while licking away the stray apple pieces that were around her mouth. "I like it when you lick your lips like that." He told her in a husky voice. Ezio walked over towards her and held her around the waist and stared deep into her eyes. It was like some unknown force held her in place while she stared stupidly at him with an apple hanging near her mouth. "Ah. No resistance this time?"

"Get off of me you old pervert!" Amalia pushed Ezio away from him, glad to have gotten out of his hold, but in the back of her mind something had wished that it had stayed a little bit longer. "We have a task at hand, and I don't want your head stuck up your ass."

"You wound me, Amalia." He said placing a hand over his heart. Yup, just his usual self. Nothing unusual about that. "Come on let's get going. High Mass is about to start and you don't' want to miss all the fun. Do you?"

The conversation ended abruptly as she watched Lorenzo and his wife enter into the plaza, hand in hand. "There's Lorenzo, and his wife." Amalia turned to Ezio, completely annoyed at the fact that he had said that. Why is it that people must state the obvious. It was actually quite annoying and one of her pet peeves that she really needed to tell Ezio about so that he wouldn't do it time and time again. "Thanks for stating the obvious Sherlock."

"Who is this Sherlock you speak of?" He questioned, turning in her direction, but not too much so that he could still keep a watchful eye on Lorenzo.

Amalia didn't answer that.

A church bell rung loud over their heads as the rest of the Medici family walked through the crowds.

"There's Giuliano, Lorenzo's brother. But where is Francesco..?"

"Oh my god, Ezio! Shut up! Stop stating the obvious or I will actually keep up with my threats and stab you." Amalia crossed her arms, clearly fed up with Ezio and his obviousness. She swore that this man just loved to here himself talk. So what if he had the sexiest Italian accent that she's heard so far. That doesn't mean that she likes to hear it all the time.

And why the hell did she just admit to that in her mind. He is so not sexy in any way shape or form.

'_Who are you trying to convince.' _A voice rung through her head. Amalia whipped around thinking that someone was whispering in her ear, but all she saw were people that were just attending High Mass and were excited to see Lorenzo and his family. "Am I going crazy or something?" She mumbled, now completely scared. This wasn't the first time that she had heard the voice. It seemed that whenever she was in tough situations or she was teasing Ezio, this voice came about. Sometimes it told her to get back on task and find the piece of Eden, which she still didn't know what it was, but other days it told her to just kill Ezio. It was like she was schizophrenic or something.

At times like these she had urges to harm something, whether it be herself or something else, but these thoughts she kept to herself. She made sure that when she had these urges that she snuck out to fulfill them, without Ezio knowing of course. She was almost positive that if Ezio found out he would kill her himself.

Everything around Amalia seemed to be gone when she was kept to herself, because the minute she came back to her senses she saw a sword coming straight for her face. Amalia let out a scream and jumped back, nearly missing the sword. It slashed through thin air like it was bread, but came back up quickly to slash done again. Apparently a guard had deemed her a threat because she seemed to be the only one not running, and he lunged for her. All the skills that she had been taught by Adamo, two years ago, came flooding into her brain and she lunged for the man. The guard stumbled backwards and made a fatal mistake as he fell to the ground because of a corpse laying right there.

Her knife was sticking out of the man's neck and she ripped it out making blood spray unto her freshly cleaned robes. "You have got to be kidding me. I just washed these you stupid piece of filth." Out of anger, her foot connected with the guard's body that she had just killed, jolting it a little bit.

Amalia rushed for a guard that was behind Lorenzo and she sunk her knife into his Trichea, making blood pour out of the deep wound. A hand grabbed her around the throat, but she quickly grabbed the arm connected to it and twisted it around bringing it in front of her and completely snapping it in half. The man behind her screamed, but instead of just letting the man suffer right there she turned around and grabbed both sides of his neck with a smirk lining her face. "Please!" The man begged, using his good arm to wrap around her wrist. "Spare me. I have a wife."

"Yeah well so did Giuliano. Look where he wound up going." Without any hesitation at all she snapped his neck and pushed his body towards the ground. Amalia turned around to watch Ezio finish up the rest of the guards, but in the midst of all this she noticed that Francesco was missing. "Dirty swine, ran away." Her teeth clenched in anger as she realized that she let the man slip through her fingers so easily. "I should have kept a better eye on him." She scolded herself for getting caught up in the fight too much, but instead let it go and headed over to Ezio and Lorenzo. "You saved my life." Lorenzo said. "It's nothing, but the man who did this to you has to pay!" Ezio responded, quickly walking over to Lorenzo as he dropped his sword to clutch his wound around his neck. Lorenzo groaned loudly as he was helped to his feet by an annoyed Ezio who was more itching to go after Francesco than help the poor man. "Not now….I need help first…To my home. People I can trust there…Can you..?"

Ezio nodded, but behind the kindness act, Amalia knew that he was just helping the man out of sheer good citizenship. She stayed behind a couple of feet as Ezio was quickly walking besides Lorenzo as he gave directions to his home. "Hurry…I'm losing a lot of blood." He mumbled, still stumbling a little as he tried to pick up the pace."Hang on Signore. I'm moving as fast as I can."

"FRANCESCO DE 'PAZZI! I'LL KILL HIM! I'LL WIPE HIS ENTIRE FAMILY FROM THE CITY! THEY'LL BE ERASED!" Amalia had to hand it to the guy that was yelling this. He had some guts to be yelling that as Francesco's men littered the streets. She was sure that this guy would be killed by the time they got to the corner of the street.

"Quietalevi, Signore (Be still, Sir). Conserver your energy, or I'll be delivering a corpse. We're almost there now."

"Ezio. Can you do me one huge favor?" Amalia asked, now wanting to set something straight with him, before he went and ticked her off again. "Now is really not the time, Amalia."

"Well you're going to have to deal with it. I tend to do this in situations like this. Now can you really do me a huge favor?"Ezio briefly turned to look back at her, but he resumed his previous position and kept running, completely ignoring her as they made their way towards Lorenzo's house. A bunch of guards ambushed them in the alley of Lorenzo's house, but Amalia told Ezio to continue as she easily defeated the guards without so much as a scratch on her.

The last man that had attacked her had been thrown into a wall and she was currently checking his pockets to see if he had any money left on him. "Do you have no heart for the dead?" Ezio asked as he carried Lorenzo inside his house. Amalia followed, but laughed at his comment. "You would do the same. Don't deny it!" Of course she knew that Ezio would do something like that, but it seemed that he was just putting up a front for Lorenzo.

"Wait." Lorenzo called, as Ezio turned to leave. "I am in your debt. Tell me. Why did you help me?" He asked, placing a hand unto his wound yet again. "You are not the only one who lost a brother to the Pazzi. My name is Ezio Auditore."

Amalia snorted as he told Lorenzo his name. "You prance around like it's a high class name or something." She mumbled under her breath. Thankfully Ezio didn't hear, because she was sure that he would have knocked her over the head. Lorenzo continued speaking as Amalia leaned against the wall next to him. "Ahh. You're Giovanni's son…Your father was a good man. He understood honor, loyalty—"

Lorenzo was cut off, by one of his guard men that burst through the door, clearly distressed by something. "The Pazzi thugs are storming the Palazzo della Signoria! We can't hold them off much longer—" Another rude person decided to cut that guard off and voice his thoughts at the problem at hand. "No! They'll get inside, they'll murder all our supporters and put their own devils in power!"

"Then my survival will mean nothing. I have to…" Lorenzo tried to get up, but was pushed back down by a guard and Ezio as he groaned in pain. "Obviously if you're hurt you shouldn't be trying to stand. I think it'd be in your best interest to stay put here while Ezio and I go to take care of things. Lorenzo grabbed her arm and stared into her eyes as he tried to form sentences properly. "Francesco de Pazzi…Help save our city…."

"Amalia Salvatore De Luca." She said, filling in the rest of the blank that he had formed in that sentence. "And you to, Auditore." He said desperately, grabbing unto Ezio's wrist and turning to look at him as well. The both of them nodded in unison. Ezio exited the courtyard of Lorenzo's house first followed by Amalia and then the two guards. Lorenzo's men stopped the both of them and gave them useful information which they should've thanked him for, but didn't. "Signore. I saw Francesco lead a battalion around the back of the Palazzo della Signoria. I fear he may be seeking another way in." The guard told them, concerned for the sake of their supporters.

"Go before it's too late. Do what you can."

**OoOoOo**

They arrived at the Palazzo della Signoria shortly, but they would've been their faster if Ezio didn't fall off of the roof and into a haystack. Of course it wasn't his fault that he had stumbled and fell to his hay demise. Amalia had just happened to stick her foot out and Ezio had gone plunging down into the haystack. He had been utterly mad that she had played such a dirty trick when they had more important things to do, but she was just trying to lighten the mood. It wasn't like she had planned that to begin with. She just wanted to have some laughs and decided that sticking her foot out like that would garner some giggles.

More from her than him, but hey she did tell him that she was going to get him back. He just never knew when. To make things even funnier Amalia saw that Francesco de' Pazzi was standing on the top of the Palazzo della Signoria and he was screaming at the both of them. "You two again! Why aren't you dead?—Men! Slaughter them."

"This guy really is hilarious." Ezio glared at her from the corner of his eye as he climbed out of the haystack. He stood next to her and plucked off all the hay that was sticking to his cloak. "How about you go after Francesco and I'll take care of all the guards own here. I'm sure some of the thieves will help me." Ezio didn't exactly say yes to her suggestion, but he didn't really say no as well. "Well…" She pushed, not wanting to continue stalling because the more time they wasted the more people that died.

"I do not believe that that is a good idea." He voiced, taking out his sword from his sheath, making it glint off of the sun. "Well you're just going to have to deal with me doing what I want, so either you get your ass up there to kill Francesco, or I'll go and do it myself." Amalia didn't wait to hear what his answer would be, but instead she ran ahead to go join the thieves that were fighting Francesco's men. It was like the men that she slashed at wouldn't die. They just kept coming back for more. There happened to be a tough guard with so much armor, Amalia was amazed that he could move at all. "Arrghh!" She yelled, aiming for his face, but instead met thin air. "Shit." She breathed, turning around to get knocked in the face with the hilt of his sword. Darkness started to swarm her vision as she stumbled backwards, nearly tripping on a corpse. "Die you fool!" The man yelled, kicking her in her gut. She blocked somewhat of the blow by grabbing unto his leg, but it still hurt nonetheless. Her hand moved further up his ankle and she pulled forward, making the man slip and fall to the ground.

A hand came at her face connecting with her cheek making her head snap to the side. "Fuck. Why can't you just die?" The man rolled out from under her narrowly missing her blade that was soon to be lodged into his throat. This man proved to be somewhat of a challenge to Amalia as most men that she had fought had been much easier than this. She would have expected him to be easy so that she could move onto the next person, but of course nothing always went her way.

In a matter of seconds she had the man pinned back to the ground with a rough kick to his side. Without missing a beat she pulled out her dagger and plunged it into his chest, smiling as the blood came out of his chest. "Thank god, took forever to just kill you." She mumbled, wiping the blood off on his clothes. Before she left to go help the other thieves she checked a couple of corpses near her to see if she could find any valuables or florins. "Why is it that city guards don't carry any money or valuables. This just puts a damper on my mood. Really!"

Amalia took her time in deciding who she should fight next. There were a bunch of battles that were all over the square that she was standing in, but she wasn't really sure which one to go to. Fighting wasn't really what she felt like doing at the moment, so she took it upon herself to go after Francesco even though she told Ezio that he was all his. Casting her eyes upwards she saw a figure jump off of the Palazzo della Signoria, and land in a wagon filled with pinkish flowers. The figure didn't seem to be wearing white robes with a red sash leaving her to assume that it was Francesco that had jumped off of the rood.

She prepare herself, in case that it was Francesco, that she would be able to run after him and kill him if Ezio lost sight of him, but soon she saw Ezio jump off of the same roof and land in another pile of flowers that was a couple of feet away from the one that Francesco had landed in. "Ezio!" She called, running over towards the cart. As she did a dark figure bumped into her sending her towards the ground. "Yah! What the hell was that for?" She screamed at the figure that was running away. It turned out that it was Francesco that had bumped into her, because as soon as she had said that Ezio jumped out of the cart and chased after him. Both men had run down the street making a sharp left into an alley just next to the armor shop. "I should take the roof."

She did just that and chased after Ezio who was gaining on Francesco like he was nothing. The amusing thing about it was that she could see Francesco getting scared at how close an Assassin was gaining on him. He looked back numerous times to see if he was still following him, which of course he still would be. Amalia jumped off of a roof and met up with Ezio as he climbed the building in front of her to catch up with Francesco. The little fart had decided to start using the rooftops instead of the ground, making it a little annoying for Ezio to follow. How she could tell? Well, you could see the sheer annoyance lacing Ezio's face, so call her crazy, but she was pretty sure that Ezio couldn't wait to lodge his hidden blade into his back. "Hey! Francesco. Watch out. There's an angry Assassins behind you who aims to kill." Amalia smirked as she saw Francesco suddenly freeze just giving Ezio enough time to stab him in the back.

She watched as Ezio grabbed unto Francesco and brought him down to the ground so that he was leaning over him. "Now Firenze will judge you for what you've done."

"It's over…It's all over." Why was it that each time Ezio killed someone or someone died he always talked to them before saying a prayer. It's not like they're going to spill out how sorry they are for killing people just because they're about to die. It really didn't stick into her brain that he was just being respectful for the dead. Amalia was the type of person that killed you and then robbed your body for any valuables that you might have on you. Ezio started to speak some prayer that she had heard many times before. "_Meglio essere felici in questa vita che aspirare a esserio nelia prosssima _(Better to be content in this life than aspire to it in the next)._Requiescat in Pace_ (Rest in Peace)."

"Come on Ezio. We must leave before anyone see's us." She whispered, grabbing his arm to help him up from his kneeling position. "He ended up just like his son." Ezio whispered, barely audible. The only way that she had heard it was the fact that she was so close to him. "So you do regret killing Vieri then." She stated, now feeling that she was getting an insight into Ezio's emotions, and how he felt about killing.

"I do not regret." He told her, brushing off her arm. "I merely am stating what has become of Francesco." Their gazes held for a moment, but Amalia swore that she did see something in his eyes that he did regret killing. "Ezio…"She started, not exactly sure what to say after that. "Amalia. It is nothing. Please let us just continue on our way."

"Fine." She mumbled. "But if you need someone to talk to…You know I'm here for you." She told him knowing that this would be the only time that she would say something like that. She looked up at him to see what his reaction would be, but what he said threw her off completely."Are you telling me that you actually care?" Ezio said before laughing.

"Way to ruin the moment Auditore. I decided to be nice and heartfelt and here you are yakking it up, thinking it's funny when for once I decided to actually care." She 'hmphed' and stormed off of the roof, clearly mad that he had ruined such a good moment like that.

"You know I meant nothing of it." He told her, grabbing her wrist before she could get away.

"Yeah well say it to my ass." She retorted, wrenching her hand free from his loose grip

"I'd love to do more than—"

"Finish that sentence Auditore and see what happens to your ass once I'm through with it."

"Ooh. Kinky! I like the way you think." Her eyebrows knit in anger and she turned around throwing her hands into the air.

"ARGH!" Ezio's laugh filled her head as she stormed off clearly fed up with his perverted mind. "I swear the next time that this man says something like that I'm really going to castrate him."

"I know you wouldn't want to castrate your only toy!" He yelled down at her from the roof as she ran off. "Hey wait up!" Ezio called chasing after her.

**OoOoOo**

"You know this is the place where I fought Vieri." Ezio told her, weaving through the crowd with her in tow. "Wow. I'm sure you two had a lot of history." She replied, not really paying attention to him, but more looking out for a certain someone. She had sworn that she had seen someone that looked exactly like Demarco. Of course she wasn't exactly sure. It was still confusing though as to why the man might even want to go after her. He didn't really have a use for her, but he probably wanted revenge for what she had done before she left him.

But the weird thing was that the entire time that she had been training in Monteriggioni, not once had he shown up on their doorstep. When Ezio had told her what he had overheard, she was sure that he would have been there the following day, but he didn't show up for two years.

But now that she had sworn that she had seen his face, she was confused as to why he was in Firenze. "Are you even paying any attention to me Amalia."

"Hn." She replied, somewhat listening to what he was saying. "Is there something on your mind?" He asked her. "Well I'm pretty sure that someone that looked like Demarco was in this crowd, but I'm not exactly sure." She responded, standing on her tippy toes to look over a group of courtesans that were standing in the middle of the crowd. "We'll discuss this later, but I see Lorenzo over there. Come." He said.

Ezio walked up towards Lorenzo and stood on his left side while she stood with her back towards the water on his right. The reason why she was standing like that was the fact that she was watching the crowd to see if her imagination was actually true.

Lorenzo started speaking and she listened in, but kept a close eye on the crowd. "When I was six years old I fell into the Arno. I soon found myself drifting down and into darkness, certain my life was at an end. Instead I woke to the sound of my mother weeping. At her side a stranger, soaking and smiling at me. My mother explained that he had saved me. And so began a long a prosperous relationship between two families: yours and mine." He said, placing a hand on Ezio's shoulder. "I am sorry I could not save your father and brothers."

"You have nothing to apologize for. I believe Jacopo de' Pazzi played a part in their deaths. The attack on you as well. I need to find him."

"That coward fled before we could arrest him!"

"Have you any leads." Ezio asked, shifting his eyes over to her, concern lacing his features. Amalia could just feel the questions emanating off of him. He was probably wondering why she was so focused on the crowd more than Lorenzo. Lorenzo looked back at Amalia, but turned back around to continue talking. "No. They've hidden themselves well."

"They?"

"Jacopo was not the only conspirator to escape."

"If they work with Jacopo, they were surely involved in the plot against my family as well. Give me their names."

"Antonio Maffei, Archbishop Francesco Salvati. Stefano de Bagnone, Bernardo Baroncelli, and a man named Demarco Costa." Amalia gasped loudly and spun around, grabbing Lorenzo by the shoulder. "What did you just say?"

"If you need me to repeat—" He started, but was cut off by Amalia.

"No! The last man you listed." She asked, gripping his shoulder harder than she should have.

"Demarco Costa. He comes from Sam Gimignano and just joined a couple of years ago. He and Jacopo fled—" Amalia didn't let him finish but instead turned around placing a hand on her chin. She wondered why Francesco and Vieri were in his house that one day that they were out. "So the entire time…he was a templar." She whispered, not really comprehending everything that was going on at the moment. Questions flew through her head as she tried to come up with a good explanation to all of this. "_Bene _(Good). We will go see Ezio's uncle."

"Are you sure—" Ezio started but was cut off. "He has men stationed in the countryside." Amalia turned to leave, but was stopped by Lorenzo. "Wait, you two. Before you go."

Lorenzo handed Ezio a scroll that Amalia knew was a Codex Page. Guess they'll be heading to Leonardo before they go back to Mario.

"A Codex page?" Ezio said surprised. "I took it from the files of Francesco de' Pazzi, seeing as he clearly no longer needs it. I've always had an interest in things of antiquity. As did your father."

"It is meaningful to me as well."

"Then consider it a gift. _Che a Signore ci protegga_ (God save us all)."

Ezio nodded and motioned for Amalia to follow who was too caught up in her thoughts to notice his gesture. Just what was Demarco doing in Firenze, and why now? Was he here to find her? If he was then the number one thing that she needed to do on her list was get the hell out of Firenze before he finds her!


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: This chapter is a little more banter between Ezio and Amalia as well as a heart to heart which doesn't turn out so well, but I figured instead of just sticking to a storyline for this chapter, why not change it up a bit! Right! Plus this one's way shorter than my other ones so I apologize from now for the short chapter.**

**Disclaimer: God I hate putting this in, but for the sake of everybody. I DO NOT own Ezio!**

**WARNING: NOT BETA'D AT ALL! EXCUSE THE MISTAKES!**

**OoOoOo**

"So tell me. Why is it that I have known you for two years, yet I feel like I have not exactly…known you at all?" Ezio said, swinging his feet back and forth as he and Amalia sat on top of Leonardo's roof. They had wanted to go inside to get the codex page de-coded, but Ezio had stopped her and told her that they needed to talk. "Well…You never really asked." She responded, picking at some loose tiles in between her and Ezio. "Tell me Amalia, just a bit about yourself and your background." She froze up knowing that this conversation would come sooner or later, but she had wished that it would have came later. In all honesty she had not prepared herself for the conversation, but had tried avoiding it at all costs.

What exactly was she supposed to tell Ezio? Was she supposed to pull a lie out of thin air and hope that he would take the lie as being the truth? Before, she would not have second thoughts about lying to Ezio, but now that she had got to know the man and travel with him for a while it was harder to do that. Amalia stalled by staring down at the people below watching as they headed down the streets towards the square that held a large market. Peace and serenity washed over her face, making a small smile grace her lips as she watched little kids running through people's legs, and couples holding hands while staring at each other lovingly. A sigh escaped her lips and she closed her eyes, tilting her head towards the sun trying desperately to come up with something before Ezio pushed again.

"Amalia.." He whispered quietly, touching her on her leg to jostle her out of her thoughts. "Listen. Ezio…I'm…" She paused to think of the right thing to say without screwing up everything that she had worked so hard at over the past two years. "No. I think I need to tell you something." She turned to watch Ezio's facial expression as it turned confused in a split second. "You're not breaking up with me are you?" He teased, a small smile passing his lips. A slight grin broke across her face, letting some of the tension leave, but not all of it. "No silly. And I never said that we were dating." A small snort came out of her, but she ignored his amused look and turned to face him so that nothing could distract her from their conversation.

"Listen. When Federico saved me from the fire and brought me to your house I was very thankful that someone would risk their life to save me. His death really hurt me and I can't even begin to describe how much sadness had washed over me, but I eventually got over it.." She was stopped as Ezio interrupted her. "What does this have to do with anything?" He questioned, confusion lacing his voice. "Will you just let me finish." She told him, smacking him on the chest. "I'm trying to tell you something but you keep on interrupting me." She crossed her arms, but continued on with what she was saying. "Anyway. The stuff that I haven't told you is that when I had left after your father and brothers were arrested I had found myself in Sam Gimignano. There I met Demarco Costa who had given me a place to stay because I had nowhere else to go."

"You mean…?" Amalia nodded as she could see realization flood unto Ezio's face. "Yes. The last name on the list that Lorenzo had given us might be, probably 100% sure, that it is the same Demarco Costa."

"So he is looking for you."

"Well if he is, I wouldn't know the reason why…but maybe he is. Or maybe he's just in town with the rest of the Templars?" She didn't know who she was trying to convince. Ezio or herself. "But besides that, that wasn't exactly what I was going to tell you.."

"Then what were you going to say?"

Amalia sighed, trying to think of the right way to say this.

"Ezio.. What I'm trying to tell you is that…" Amalia groaned and smacked her head because she felt like if she told Ezio then he would definitely look at her crazy.

"Amalia. Just tell me please! What are you trying to say?" She felt a light touch on her hand, which sent shivers running throughout her body. The touch helped a little bit, but it was still not enough to make her want to tell him. Her eyes traveled from his hand and all the way up until she was staring him in the eyes. "I don't think that you'll believe me when I say this, but….I know your life Ezio."

"What are you trying to say? Of course you know my life…why else—"

"No Ezio." She said sternly, cutting him off. "I mean I know your life. As in I know what's going to happen in the future, and I know how you came to be exactly. I don't know why I know this, but it's just like that. I'm sorry I didn't tell you before, but I didn't think there was an appropriate time to tell you." Amalia didn't know what emotions were on Ezio's face, but she was pretty sure that there was some sort of anger there.

"You mean to tell me that—"

"Yes I knew that your father and brothers were going to die, but I couldn't—"

"So you had the power to stop it!" He yelled getting up and glaring at her furiously. Amalia felt terrible that she was saying something now, but at least she had said something! He should be happy that she wasn't keeping this a secret anymore. "Why didn't you say anything!" He yelled, not even giving her a chance to speak at all. "You condemned me to this life, and you said NOTHING! NOTHING! How could you!" He whispered the last part tears starting to form in his eyes. "I watched them die…" His voice became quieter as he started calming down, but sadness now took over the anger

"Wait Ezio—"

"No Amalia. I cannot believe that you would do something like that. Please. Just leave me to myself. I need some time to think." Ezio stood there for a couple of seconds, but then he shook his head and jumped down off of Leonardo's roof. Amalia watched through tears as he walked down the street not once looking back. "What have I done?" She sniffed, wiping at the tears that started falling down her face.

Of course she had the power to stop it, but why didn't she? Why? Was she to afraid to say anything? Maybe she had thought that they would think she was crazy. And how would they take it if they knew that she knew all the information about Ezio's life? Surely they would get rid of her in an instant and then where would she go?

"I need to go talk to Leonardo." She mumbled, putting a sweaty palm to her forehead

OoOoOo

"Oh. I see." Leonardo wasn't much help at all after Amalia had told him what had happened with Ezio. "I do not know what to say Amalia. But I do think that you were wrong in this situation."

"Yeah thanks for the help Leonardo. I'm sure this advice will keep him from staying mad at me." Amalia crossed her arms and threw herself into the couch in front of the fire place, clearly annoyed that he had nothing good to say. "What do you want me to tell you? Surely you can just tell him that you had intended to tell him, but never got the chance…? Right?"

"The thing is, is that I couldn't tell him! I don't know why all of that information had slipped my mind, but it had. He's obviously going to ignore me for the rest of the time being." Depression swept over her and she laid her head down on her lap, trying to hold back tears of frustration. She felt a comforting hand rub her back, and she felt better at the touch. But only just a little bit.

"When he comes back just talk to him, okay."

Ezio didn't end up coming back to Leonardo's workshop until late at night. Amalia had been fast asleep on the couch when she had heard the creaking of a door behind her. Curious at who it might be, she peeked over the top of the couch to see Ezio with his back to her, forehead pressed against the door. Her breath quickened as he turned around, but Amalia had ducked back down and pretended that she was asleep.

She listened to his footsteps as they started to draw away from the front door, but they stopped suddenly. It sounded like Ezio may have spotted her, and she tried her very best to keep as still as possibly. "Amalia…" She heard her name being whispered and a hot breath was now on her face, causing her to almost shiver at how warm it was. Her ears picked up a sigh escaping his lips, and then something warm was pushed under her legs and she felt herself being picked up.

Unconsciously she snuggled closer to his body trying to warm herself up from his body heat. When she did the smell of sex hit her, making her almost angry. Had he just gone to a brothel after their argument to get all his pent up anger out? How could he have had her worry so much about him, and him being gone so long, when all he did was have sex! _'I swear, when I wake up tomorrow…' _She said mentally, making a huge fist in her head.

'_He's gonna wish that he was born a girl when I'm through with him and his friend.' _She felt herself being lowered unto a bed and Ezio untangling her arms from around his neck. "I don't know why I got so mad at you Amalia, but I guess because you're asleep I should just tell you in the morning…" He kissed her forehead and left the room, leaving Amalia to lie their with her cheeks red as a tomato.

"Oh God." She whispered, trying to get the butterfly feelings out of her stomach.

**OoOoOo**

The following morning Amalia opened her eyes slowly to be met with the brightness of the sun shining through the guest bedroom. A groan passed through her lips and she threw the covers over her head to try and fall back asleep. A deep chuckle could be heard, and she poked her head out from under the covers to see Leonardo standing there with a grin plastered to his face. "My dear, you are an amusing subject to watch while asleep. If I might ask, may I sketch you later. I think I would be able to capture this moment perfectly."

Everything that Leonardo had said went over her head, because she wasn't paying attention to Leonardo that was standing there, but her eyes were glued to the window. "Leonardo.." Amalia turned her head towards Ezio as he placed a hand on his shoulder. "Can you leave Amalia and I to talk alone?" Leonardo nodded, and winked at Amalia before he left.

"Ezio—"

"No. Amalia. I need to tell you something—"A bad feeling settled in the pit of Amalia's stomach and she felt like bad news was about to be delivered. "I think I need time to myself." He started, but stopped as he saw a sad look cross Amalia's face. "Didn't you just have time to yourself Ezio. You were gone the entire night practically?" Ezio shook his head and sat on the edge of the bed, taking a hold of Amalia's hand. "What I mean is that…I think that you should stay at Uncle Mario's villa until after my next assassination mission. "

"Why…" She whispered as Ezio's fingers intertwined with hers. "There's no reason…" He mumbled, looking away from her. "Yes! There has to be a reason Ezio. There always is." Ezio shook his head and turned to look her in the eyes as he wanted to make sure that he got his point across. "After what happened yesterday, I think that I need time off away from you."

"So what you're basically saying is that you don't trust me right now." She said with a little bit of anger and sadness in her face. "I didn't say that—"

"You might as well have." She told him, taking her hand out of his and shifting away from him so that her back was now up against the headboard of the bed. "Look..Amalia. Please don't take it the wrong way. I just feel a little betrayed after you told me that."

No one said anything for a little while as the only thing that could be heard was the movement downstairs where Leonardo had resided to. Birds chirped happily outside the window, and at the moment Amalia wanted to slice their throats, because their happy singing was not helping the situation at all. "Things could have been different if you had just said something. I'm sure my father would have believed you and put a stop to it."

Amalia was silent. Not exactly sure on what she was supposed to say at a time like this. In all honesty it hurt to hear Ezio say that he couldn't trust her. Even after the two years that they had spent together, running up and down and having laughs, he couldn't trust her? How was she supposed to stay at the villa and act like nothing had happened? Mario would surely ask why Ezio had decided to just drop her off, but what could she do? Wait until Ezio left and then follow him on his next mission. She shook her head not wanting to think of stupid thoughts like that.

For once, Amalia had no idea how to talk to Ezio. Because at the moment, she felt like their relationship was being strained to the point where they might not stay friends at all, but just accomplices that work together.

And she didn't want it to come down to that.

"After Leonardo is done downstairs de-coding the codex page, we will leave Firenze as soon as possible. Okay." He smiled lightly at her, ruffling her hair, and then left as the door closed quietly behind him.

What in the hell had she just done?

**OoOoOo**

The villa came sooner than expected and Amalia just wanted to shut herself inside her room as soon as they got inside. Of course Ezio had instead dragged her to see Mario, thus making her mood darker and darker with each step they got closer to his room. As they entered Mario turned towards them with a big smile on his face. " Ezio! Haha. Come in, come in! To what do we owe the honor?" He hugged Ezio first and then came over to Amalia and gave her a big hug as well.

When she didn't return the hug, Mario looked at her strangely before turning to Ezio, looking for an answer as to why she was so sad. Ezio just shook his head and got straight done to business. "I've been sent from Firenze by Il Magnifico to attend to some unfinished business. I'm looking for Jacopo de' Pazzi."

"Ha…Who isn't? We've been at it for days."

"Then perhaps what I carry will help us both, a list of his co-conspirators. One of them WILL talk before he dies." Mario nodded, placing a hand under his chin. "Excellent! These men are sure to lack Jacopo's resources which means they will be easier to find. I will put my scouts to it at once."

"I appreciate the help uncle. I've got something else for you as well. More Codex pages."

"Ah let's see what we can learn." Mario unraveled the scroll and examined it for a minute or two before speaking. "What is this…? What Prophet…?"

"What did you find Uncle?"

"Just another damn mystery! The text here roughly translates to: 'Only the prophet may open it…' There's reference to two 'Pieces of Eden,' but these pages offer no answers _nipote _(nephew). At least not on their own. You must find more. "

"We'll have to save it for another day uncle. I have a mission to attend to." Ezio turned around to walk away, but Mario speaking once more stopped him from leaving. "As you wish. If you hope to defeat these _bastardi _(bastard), I will need to teach you a few things. Meet me on the practice field."

Ezio turned back around to walk away again, but Mario stopped him from leaving by placing a hand on his shoulder. "What about Amalia. I must teach her a few things as well _nipote_."

"She will not be joining me on this mission uncle. I am asking you to look after her as I will absent for a period of time." Mario's eyebrows scrunched together in confusion as he turned to look between Amalia and Ezio. "Has something happened Ezio why the two of you are not on speaking terms?"

"You could say that." Ezio mumbled, not bothering to look in Amalia's direction as she stared at him hoping that he might change his mind. "I see." Mario said, looking downwards.

"Well, if that is you're request then I shall grant it. Amalia will be staying with me as you attend to your next mission, but before you go, do not forget to meet me outside. I have some fighting techniques that will be very useful to you." Mario left the room with a wave of his hand leaving Ezio and Amalia standing in the middle of Mario's study.

"I will probably be gone for a day or two. That should give me some time to think."

"Are you really being this stubborn Ezio. Not everybody can escape death. Maybe it was just their time to die." Ezio whipped around to glare menacingly at Amalia. He stood in Amalia's face and grabbed her wrist squeezing it as hard as he could. "You know nothing." He growled, trying to keep his temper under control, even though it wasn't working to well.

"They were good people."

"Yeah well bad things happen to good people." Her eyes widened as she just realized that she had yelled something like that in Ezio's face. "Oh god," She mumbled. "What have I done!"

Ezio's face looked like he was about to murder her, but he controlled himself and stormed out the room leaving Amalia standing there, shock written all over her face.

'_Nice going.' _The voice whispered to her.

Why was that the last thing that she had said to Ezio before he left? Now he's going to remember that forever. Amalia grabbed parts of her hair and started tugging at it as if she was trying to get rid of her stupidity. "Damn it, damn it damn it." She yelled, punching her hand into the wall next to her.

"Damn it."


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: I feel like I've been on a roll so far with updating my chapters. *sniff sniff* So proud of myself at the moment. Sorry about the angsty chapter….I was feeling that their needed to be some type of tension going on. Hopefully this chapter won't be as angsty as the last one, but please enjoy.**

**Also this chapter is a little short as well, but please still enjoy. It was hard to type with a brace on my wrist...because I sprained it to the point of almost fracture. Funny part of the story is that I tripped over air, almost cracked my head open on my dresser drawer, and then placed my wrist out to stop it making it land in an awkward position. Scary part was that the bone there was raised very high and I had to push it back down….-_-..tripped over fuckin' air. No comment on that**

**Ugh…one of my worst chapters to though…..Please excuse how non-detailish and boring it is. **

**Thanks to reviewers:**

**Xxnikkigirl123xX**

**BeachVampire17**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Ezio. Only that mountain size dick of his. LOL!**

**OoOoOo**

"Stupid Ezio..and…and stupid Mario. And…stupid everything." Amalia grumbled as she swept the inside of the villa, not really enjoying the fact that the work that Mario had been talking about was actual housework. "I can't believe I fell into that little demon's trap."

"Demon? I assure you that I am no demon." She whipped her head around to see Mario, delighted as ever, smiling at her from his position up against the wall. A laugh escaped his lips and Amalia wished that she could just walk over there and wipe that smile off of his lips with the broom that she held in her hand. "I see you find this very funny." She said continuing on with her sweep of the tiled floor. "Well there had to be someone that cleaned the villa. It was getting a little dusty."

"Why didn't you get Claudia or some whore form the brothel to do that. I came here to relax and get rid of the stress on my shoulders. And what do you do," She remarked. "You put me to work as soon as possible."

"Listen Amalia." Mario got up and strode over to her, gently taking the broom out of her hand to rest it against the table that was behind her. He then put both of his hands on her shoulder and made Amalia look at him. "I know that you are mad because Ezio's gone—"

"I never said that." She told him quickly, wanting to end the conversation right there. "The look on your face said everything." She shook her head, not wanting to hear it at all. "I never said it." She whispered again. Who exactly was she trying to convince? Mario or herself.

But what Mario said had been very true. She does miss Ezio. And it was all her fault too. She was the reason why he left. He had cooled down a little bit when they had arrived at the villa, but the last thing that she had said to him before he left was that bad things happened to good people. She had said it in a tone that told him to get over it. She had yelled at him.

How could she have done that? After everything that he had gone though she went and said that. "Mario…You have no idea how terrible I feel right now. Do you know what I said to him before he left."

"You don't need to tell me. I think that this is just between you and him."

"You were there! You saw how he looked at me. He HATES me now. He hates me…" Amalia trailed off lowering her head in shame. She couldn't bare to look at Mario as he tried to silence her cries. Amalia. I think it would be best if you got some rest. I'm sure that that will lessen your depressing mood just a little bit." Her head shook back and forth. "No. I just want to apologize to him. No not want. I need to apologize to him. He must absolutely hate me now."

"Come. Let me show you something." Her head perked up at the sound of Mario's footsteps fading away and she ran after him to see what he wanted to show her. The walk was silent as Mario led her outside of the villa and into the town. Muddy ground and large puddles could be seen scattered across the road, making Amalia wince at how much the town was in bad shape. Some buildings were boarded up and had no business, while the others that were open barely had any customers. Not many people lined the streets making it seem desolate and barren.

A gust of wind blew through the streets making her shiver, and wish that she had at least grabbed a jacket. As they continued to walk throughout the streets, turning corners here and there, Amalia thought about what Ezio was doing. Maybe he was already in Firenze completing his mission. Or maybe he was thinking about how much he hated her. It was like she couldn't stop thinking about him and what he was doing.

Why was it that she couldn't stop thinking about him? That was what she seemed to do the entire time that she was staying there. Maybe it was just the fact that she had gotten him angry why she was constantly thinking about him, but that little voice in the back of her head said otherwise.

'_You obviously have feelings for him.' _It told her, a chuckle escaping the voice and entering her head. _'Shut up. I don't want to talk to you. It makes me seem crazy!' _ She yelled in her head, maneuvering around a woman that was sitting on the side of the road. _'Admit it.' _The voice said. Amalia didn't respond to that. She didn't feel like she needed to anyway.

"Look." Mario's voice broke her from her thoughts. "What is it?" She asked, staring up at the building that loomed over her blocking out the sun's rays. "It's a church. Not at its best, but still looking better than it had before. The roof needs to be fixed, but when the sun shines through the cracks in the roof it looks very beautiful."

"And you're showing me this why?" She asked, not really getting why he had showed her this. "Because I feel that if you ever need a place to just get away to when things are bad, then you can come here."

"This isn't making me feel any better." She told him truthfully. "The only thing that will make me feel better is apologizing to Ezio."

"Amalia! You cannot just wallow in sadness the rest of the time you are here. You must be happy that you are getting a break away from the man." A sigh passed through her lips and she blew the hair in her face out of the way. "I think I'm going to head back to the villa. You know…start on dinner or something….."

She turned around and left even as Mario was calling out her name from behind her.

"Amalia wait—"

Maybe she should have stayed with Demarco. Maybe she'd become a Templar and then turn out to be against the Assassins and help them instead. That would probably be better than knowing that one of your friends absolutely hates your guts.

"Ugh… I really hope he comes back so that I can apologize."

'_And tell him that you like him.'_

'Shut up.'

**OoOoOo**

Three days. Three days. Amalia couldn't take it anymore. When in the hell was he going to come back? He had told her that he would be gone a day or two and she figured that he wouldn't take that long to come back. At the moment she was sitting in her room with her knees curled up to her chest, watching the sun set outside the window. Tomorrow would be the fourth day. She couldn't even remember the last time that she was this far away from him.

Maybe the voice was true. Maybe she was starting to have feelings for Ezio. If he was acting like this then something was definitely going on. But Ezio's attitude and how he has sex with anything that moves, bothers her. She would never want to like someone like that.

What if the both of them were truly dating? Would he have sex with a whore every time they got into a fight? She can't even handle him when he isn't dating her so what made her think that this would be fine.

Ezio always gave off misleading signals though. One day he wouldn't touch her at all, but the next he might grab her hand just to hold it, or hug her out of the blue.

What did all of that mean?

Was she just someone to him or was she more than that?

Amalia felt like she was a mess in general. Her head was all screwed up and she had no idea why she couldn't just get over him. No she didn't like him. That was what she would tell herself. Maybe if she kept on telling herself that then the feelings that she had for him might just go away.

"Oh my god. I just admitted that I like him." She whispered to herself, grabbing unto her hair and yanking it. Her eyes widened to the size of saucers as she just realized what she had said out loud. Amalia felt like jumping off of the villa's roof into nothing, hoping that a black hole would swallow her up and spit her back out somewhere else than this.

"Are you okay?" A voice asked from behind the door. "Yeah I'm fine." She yelled back. The person opened the door still, to reveal that it was Claudia that had knocked on the door.

"Are you sure? You've been inside of this room for day..." Amalia nodded, only convincing herself. "Tell me. What is wrong Amalia. Surely something is on your mind to make you act like this."

"Ezio." The moment his name left her lips Claudia rolled her eyes and sat down on the edge of the bed. "My brother…"She started, laughing out loud as if she was remembering something funny about him. "He is definitely a strange one." She admitted. "Has he done something to you, why you are in here?"

"I….I…"

"Come. Tell me what is on your mind." Amalia was glad that she had befriended Claudia in the past few days that she had been here. She was the only person that she could talk to at the villa because for one, she was a girl, and two she was around the same age as her. Plus she needed advice from a girl figure and Claudia seemed to be the perfect person for the job.

"What do you do when you like someone that you shouldn't?"

"Are you telling me that you are falling in love with my brother?" Claudia asked, an amused tone lacing her voice. "I never said anything like that." Amalia quickly defended, not wanting her to get the wrong idea. "But you do like him though..right?"

"Maybe just a little."

"I do not think that you should like him though. He's not the best when it comes to relationships." Claudia told her honestly. "I believe that he would just take your heart and crush it in an instant."

"I know.." Amalia whispered, knowing that that fact would settle in soon. It was true though. Ezio would probably take her heart, chew it and then spit it back up to move unto another one. Besides, he didn't really have that good of a reputation as well. "It would be best to get rid of those feelings as they are at the first stage because later on it would be harder to get rid of them."

"But I can't—"

"Yes you can." She said firmly. "And you will." Claudia told her, grabbing unto her wrist tightly. "I do not want to see someone as fragile as you get hurt." She let go, not wanting to hurt Amalia at all, but just to get her to know that she was being serious. "Besides, I do not want your first relationship to be your worst and last one."

"How do you know that I haven't dated before?" Amaliaa asked, looking up at Claudia, shocked because she hadn't said anything about that before."

"You have the look on your face." Amalia looked at her confused, before Claudia burst out laughing grabbing unto the sheets before she fell on the floor. "You should have seen the look on your face. That was too funny." She wiped the tears away from her eye and placed a hand on Amalia's leg, comforting her in some way.

"I just don't want you to get hurt. Okay!" She nodded and Claudia patted her on the leg before leaving the room in a flutter of pink and white. "She's right. I shouldn't like him anymore. It's bad for my health." Amalia smiled a bit to herself, trying to cheer up and lied down in the bed, getting under the comforter.

Warmth spread over her as the blanket felt soft and cozy and her eyes started to close before darkness soon took over her. Her last thoughts that night weren'y on Ezio, but they were now on what she was going to do tomorrow to get her back in high spirits.


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Last chapter was quite short and this one is quite short as well, because I had no idea what to put inside here. I think this was like the second worst chapter I've written…so please excuse the blunt, straight to the point sentences, that seemed to have no detail at all. Plus it's a really REALLY bad ending**

**WARNING: THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS A LOAD OF CRAP! AND IT'S NOT ONE OF MY BEST IN MY BOOK! ALSO NOT BETA'D **

**Disclaimer: -_-;….I shouldn't have to say anything on this part**

**OoOoOo**

"Where are we headed exactly?"

"To San Gimignano. They have a nice tailor shop there and I need my clothes to get altered." Amalia felt her blood run cold at the mentioning of the name. She shouldn't be afraid to go back there because she knew that the co-conspirators were in Firenze, but something uneasy was settling in her stomach.

What if he had gone back to his house for someone unknown reason? Then she would have the potential risk of bumping into him. She now regretted ever agreeing to go with Amanzio on this little trip of his. Mario had forced her to do work while she stayed at the villa, but he also sent her on little trips as well, saying that exercise will help her clear her mind.

If she could do a face palm at the moment, she would. "Come Amalia. It is only a day's ride." She glared at him from her position on the horse. "Yeah, well I'd rather be back in my room than doing this."

"Mario insisted that you come along." Amanzio said, pushing part of his bangs out of his face. For a thief he was pretty cute. Not that she was saying that thieves are all ugly. But most of them were. "And why would he say something like that?" She questioned, eyebrows now raised at how ridiculous that sounded.

"Because…"Amanzio trailed off. "He told me that you must get over a certain man and that this little trip would help you."

"I never said anything about trying to get over a certain man!" Amalia screeched, utterly horrified that Mario would come to a conclusion like that without consulting her first. "From what he has told me, you seemed pretty banged up over Ezio's departure."

"Claudia." She growled, clenching her fists. "I swear that girls mouth is like diarrhea. She just keeps running her mouth." Amalia paused to fix her hood so that it was covering her face again. "What else have you heard?" She asked trying to get the information out of him. "Well. It seems that you have fallen in love with a man whore."

"Who said anything about falling in love. I NEVER said that. Who said that?" Amanzio let out a deep laugh not even trying to cover up how much he loved making her squirm on her horse. "You know…" He started placing a finger under his chin. "If you ever do need someone to—"

"No!" She yelled, crossing her arms.

"But you didn't let me finish."

"I didn't need you to. I already know what you were going to say. I'm not having sex with you." She huffed.

"Who said anything about sex? I never said that." He wiggled his eyebrows making Amalia shiver. "Don't ever do that again, or I'll cut your balls off."

"Wouldn't you just love to touch them!" Amalia smiled sheepishly at their silly banter. Their meaningless flirts and teasing reminded her of Ezio and her arguing whenever they had the chance. They would always say one thing and it ended up being something about sex in the end. It was just easy to flirt and have fun with Ezio because he always played along and went with it. Now that it was Amanzio, that she was flirting with, she felt like he was a replacement for Ezio.

They even had the same 'zio' at the end of their name. Both were very good looking, both were assassins…well as close as a thief gets to an assassins, and they both were a flirt. Her eyes widened. "Oh god. He is a replacement."

"Who's a replacement?"

"You!" Amalia said pointing at him. "You and Ezio are similar in so many ways that it's starting to creep me out."

"Does that mean that I'll get something tonight."

"NO!" If she could smack Amanzio right now she would have but the fact that they were on horses and moving at that, she wouldn't dare try and reach over to smack him. She didn't want to risk falling off of the horse and getting trampled by it. That would definitely not be a pretty sight.

"So tell me Amalia. How did you come to like Sir Ezio?"

"You're pushing it Amanzio." Amalia said, nettled at his persistency.

"Sorry." He mumbled, holding back a smile that was about to creep unto his face.

"How much more longer till we get there and find a place to stay." Amanzio shrugged getting her a little bit annoyed. The man had dragged her all the way out here, and didn't even know how far until they reached. "What a great guide you are..." She mumbled scratching the back of her head. "I was never asked to be a guide to anyone. I'm just going to take care of business. Now that Francesco and Vieri are gone, it's easier to visit the town without too much trouble."

"Does that mean that you'll be trading more with this town now that their no longer corrupt?"

"Depends on what Mario would want. I'm sure that he will begin once our town gets up and running again because as you can see, at the moment, the town's not in the best of shape."

"So then why don't we make a little money while we're they so that we can renovate some of the buildings in the town?" She suggested, smirking at what she had in mind.

"And what do you have in mind?" Amanzio asked, turning to stare at her. "Well, I was thinking that we…rob."

He sat there in silence, not exactly sure on what he should say to that. "What! It's like San Gimignano will be giving back to the town from all the destruction and stress that they put us through when Vieri and his father were in charge."

"We are not those type of thieves, but we are more civilized." She snorted at his comment shaking her head. "I'm pretty sure that killing people to get rid of corrupt leaders is civilized."

Amanzio stopped his horse, pursing his lips in thought. "What do you think Mario would say if we came back with a massive load of money? Do you honestly think he would approve?"

"I'm pretty sure that he would be happy that this town no longer looks like shit." He sighed not really happy with where she was trying to go with this. Of course he would like to see the town back up and running, but it would be a dishonorable way to gain the smiles back on the citizens faces from how their homes no longer looked terrible and poverty stricken. "I don't know…" He trailed off, scratching under his chin.

"How about I do all the dirty work while you turn your back and pretend like you have no idea what is going on."

"Then I would feel guilty at the fact that I let you get away with something like that." She pouted at the fact that she couldn't get away with anything while talking to Amanzio. "Fine." She said, annoyed that she couldn't win this fight. "Good." A smile crept across his face and Amalia had the urge to smack him. _'Don't worry.'_ She said in her head. _'I'll just do it when you're not around.'_

**OoOoOo**

It felt like she was just here yesterday. Even though she hadn't been back here in the past two years, she felt familiarity wash over her. The buildings were still tall as ever and people bustled through the streets moving past her quickly to get towards the market. A smile spread unto her face as she watched a family of three walking towards the market hand in hand, afraid that if they let go they might lose each other.

For some strange reason Ezio leaving hit her like a brick, but she pushed those thoughts away telling, herself that she wouldn't think about him while she was staying at the villa. Well technically she wasn't at the villa, but she was trying to make the rules apply for anywhere she went. Amalia was pretty sure that when Ezio comes back, if he ever does, that the hard work that she had put into forgetting about her feelings for him would disappear once she sees his face.

"Amalia! Hello." A hand waved in front of her face snapping her out of her reverie. "Yes!" She answered, no longer distracted by her thoughts. "I was just telling you that I found a nice inn nearby that we can stay at for the night." She nodded her head, glad that she didn't have to sleep on the streets that night. Amanzio jogged on ahead of her and she did just the same to keep up pace with him. Before long he had stopped at an inn nearby a nice fountain in the center of the square.

"An elderly man told me about a place called Antonio's inn, and I figured that If I should believe anybody about good inns, it should be an elderly man." Amanzio chuckled at his own attempt at a joke to lighten up the mood, but that name sent her brain into motion. She remembered the time that her, and Demarco had gone out practically the entire day and he had said that he needed to stop at his friend Antonio's shop. Maybe it wasn't the same Antonio, but upon closer inspection of her surroundings, she confirmed that her suspicions were right.

It didn't matter that she had been in the back entrance of the business. She distinctly remembered that this was the same area that she had been in before. "Are you going to come inside with me, or stand outside here like an idiot?" Amanzio teased, opening the door for her to walk in. Amalia didn't pay attention to the man's comments, but she thought that maybe she could bribe Antonio and see what exactly Demarco was up to.

The inside of the inn had a homey feel to it and she felt comfortable just looking at it. There were fairly nice seats set about the open space where anyone could lounge and a counter in the back where she assumed you got your keys to your room and paid for it. "Hello and welcome to my inn. My name is Antonio and we have plenty of spare rooms to give out."

The welcoming had been very warm, despite how fake it was, but she didn't like the smile that was on the man's face. Even though he was facing Amanzio talking, his eyes had been on her body the entire time he had welcomed the both of them in…well more her than Amanzio.

"How many rooms?" The man asked, eyes never leaving hers. "One room please, with two beds." The man nodded finally breaking eye contact with her and handing the man a room key with a small number etched into the side. Amanzio handed the florins over to the man and he dropped the key into his palm. "Come on Amalia. We've got to get going before the shop closes." Amanzio asked the man where his room was before he headed off in that direction leaving her and that man inside the same room.

"So you're name's Amalia?" He asked, eyes squinting at her. "Yeah and your name's Antonio." They both glared at each other for quite some time before the man finally broke the tension. "I've heard much about you…" He trailed off leaving Amalia curious as ever. "From who?" She asked, arms now crossed across her chest. "Demarco." Her breathing hitched a bit, but she didn't visibly show that she was shaking inside. "Oh really now!" She said a smile spreading across her face.

"I see he still is angry about what happened, huh."

The man nodded stiffly. "But if he knew where I was, why didn't he try anything, hmmm." She pushed, knowing that she was about to cross the line somewhere. "Why don't' you ask him yourself." Antonio knocked on the wall behind him, and the door opened to reveal Demarco.

Amalia gasped, clearly shocked at him standing there. She had to admit that he looked stunning in that dark brown tunic that he was wearing, but she shook those thoughts out of her head as she realized the situation that she was in right now.

"Amalia Salvatore De Luca!" He announced, smiling and shaking his head. "I've heard much about you in the past two years that you were gone…" She took a step back as he walked around the counter to stand in front of her. "I thought that you were in Firenze?" She asked, mentally stabbing Amanzio and Mario for forcing her to come here. She knew that she was going to bump into him. That uneasy feeling that was settling in the bottom of her stomach had been right the entire time.

Why didn't she just listen to that feeling and just head back to the villa when she had the chance? Now she was stuck here, no where to go because she was sure that Demarco was going to do something to her for the trouble that she had caused.

"Who said anything about me being in Firenze?" Demarco said arms spread wide as if he was waiting for a hug. "Ahhh." He voiced, hand rubbing his chin as if realization hit him. "You're an Assassin aren't you? No one else knew of my whereabouts except Antonio."

"You shouldn't assume things like that Demarco. It makes an ass out of just you." Demarco growled at her comment and grabbed her by the collar, slamming her into the nearest wall. "It was you and that man who killed Vieri and Francesco huh! Jacopo told me everything that had happened, but I didn't believe him that a worthless weakling like you could do anything. Probably hiding behind that man I see."

Amalia spit in his face while trying to squirm out of his vice grip. "Ezio has nothing to do with this," She screamed finally able to get out of Demarco's grip. "Besides, as we speak Ezio's hunting down all the co-conspirators that were on the list, and yours just happens to be on the list, so I might as well do this one for him." Amalia unsheathed a hidden blade from her boot and flashed it in front of him, grinning at the surprised look that was on his face.

"Oh we'll see about that."

**OoOoOo**

"Dammit." She cursed gripping her right arm that had a huge gash on the inside. She had let her guard down when Amanzio had called her name, and Demarco had taken that opportunity to cut her. When he did, he had left the building yelling that he would meet her again when the time came. Of course Amalia had tried to get up and go after him, but the burning pain in her arm was unbearable and she sat there, almost close to tears.

Amanzio had picked her up and guided her outside of the city towards a horse, saying that she should get back to the villa so that her wound could be taken care of. He had never told her why she should head back there instead of staying their to get her wound treated, but she didn't question it as she made her horse go at top speed so that she could get back sooner than later. The wound could become potentially infected, so as a precaution she took off her cloak and then her tunic, leaving a white long sleeved shirt on her body. Taking the white sleeved long shirt, she peeled it back making sure to avoid the gash and pressed the tunic into her wound.

As she looked up from her tending to her wound, she saw the gates of Monteriggioni in the background. "How long was I riding for?" She asked. Usually it would take much longer to get to the city, but it had only taken her a short amount of time. As the gates came closer and closer, she felt herself getting a little light headed from the loss of blood. Her vision started to falter, but she shook her head trying to get rid of the double images.

The horse stopped suddenly, jolting her forward and she saw that it stopped in front of the gates. "Oh yeah...That's right. The horse won't go into the city. Awesome…" She mumbled, un-mounting the horse. As soon as her feet touched the ground, her knees buckled, and she cried out as she landed on her injured arm. "_Cazzo…(_Fuck)." She picked herself right back up, and walked through the streets looking for one of those doctors.

"Just great!" She yelled, standing in front of the doctor's shop that was closed. "How am I supposed to get treated now." Amalia grumbled, and continued to put pressure on her arm as she walked towards the villa, going up the steps as slowly as she could. It was hard enough walking because she felt weak, but the steps just killed her. As she got closer to the villa, she felt that she couldn't stand up anymore and she was reduced to lying in front of the villa, wishing that the pain would just go away.

She cursed out Demarco in her head and swore that if she ever saw that man's face again, she would slice it up without a second thought. "Amalia!" A voice called. Her head turned in the direction of the voice and she was surprised to see Ezio standing their, shock written all over his face. "_Oh mio dio_ (Oh my god)!"

Ezio raced over and dropped down to his knees so that he could cradle her head in his lap. "What happened?" He asked, removing her hand from clutching unto her wound. "Demarco…"

"What!" He shouted. "I thought that he was still in Firenze?"

"Well apparently not. But could we not talk about this now and just get me to a doctor or something, because this gash feels like it's ripping my insides out."

"Okay…" His voice sounded a little shaky, as he picked her up, bringing her into the villa.

"Claudia! I need you." Ezio shouted. His sister came rushing out of the room next door to them, horror written on her face as she saw Amalia in his arms. "_Oh mio dio_. What happened! Is she alright!"

"I don't know, but the cut seems very deep. I need you to take care of her, while I go fetch Uncle Mario." He placed Amalia down on her bed, making her wonder how she didn't notice that they were walking why Claudia was frantically asking questions.

"Amalia…I'm going to need you to stay calm, because this will surely hurt." Claudia warned her, as she removed the pieces of clothing that were in the way.

"Just do it!" She yelled.

Without warning Claudia placed a cloth on her cut making it sting worse than it had before. She clenched her teeth as a wave of pain washed over her. How much she wished she could really just stab Demarco now. "What the hell is on that cloth!" She screamed, gripping unto her sleeve tightly.

"It's water."

"WATER!"

How could water hurt so damn much at a time like this.


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: That one was kind of short…so sorry about the long post promise, but I wasn't able to get around to typing more than 4,000 words. I'm super busy on a history research paper that's due April 28, and I've had major writer's block. Funny thing was that I typed chapter 12 before this chapter because I was that stuck. LOL! But please enjoy this. Also I'm currently on spring break, so definitely look for way more updates as I've been absent for a long time.**

**Disclaimer: Imma dis the claim if I ever have to put 'er on here again. **

**Fuck that was lame. **

**OoOoOo**

Her head was pounding as she rolled over in bed, groaning at the light that was streaming through the window. It felt like a man had run into her brain and chopped down what little brain cells she had left because at the moment she felt stupid asking herself where exactly she was. Amnesia felt like it had settled into her brain, but once she got up out of the bed and took in her surroundings, everything came flooding back to her. Demarco fighting her, her struggling to get on a horse towards Mario's villa, and then when Ezio had saved her.

Ezio.

Gosh she was happy the man had showed up at that time. When had she ever thanked god that much. Actually, she didn't remember the last time she had attended church. Thinking about church reminded her of Mario showing her that run down church in town. Maybe she should visit there and fix it up…make it her own little project whenever she came by here.

She could probably get a team of thieves to help her fix the cracks in the roof and build new benches to place inside there. A knock at her door broke her from her thoughts.

"May I come in?" A voice asked quietly. It was a little ruff and she already knew who it belonged to. The man that had caused her so much trouble in the past few days…or maybe it was weeks. She couldn't really remember how long Ezio was gone for. All she knew was that he fucking brain ninja'd her and she didn't really appreciate that. "As long as you wipe your feet. I don't need blood being carried inside here." She could hear a chuckle as the door was opened to reveal a hoodless Ezio, wearing normal clothes for once.

"I see you decided to be a citizen, rather than an Assassin today." He shrugged and closed the door.

"How's your arm doing?" He asked, concern lacing his voice.

"It's fine." She responded.

Amalia waited for him to turn around, and when he did sadness was etched all across his face. Now that she looked closer, she could see numerous bags under his eyes, and his skin was no longer then tan color it used to be. No, it was a pale color, which she swore she could paint on the wall. That's how close to a white, his skin color was at the moment. "Ezio…" She whispered, concerned. He approached and sat on the bed, hands now resting under his chin.

"I don't know where to start Amalia."

"Well the beginning is always nice." She replied, scooting back a little so that she wasn't falling off the bed anymore.

"When I left...I don't know how to say this, but it was the dumbest move I could have made. And that is saying something because I usually never make a mistake." He trailed off, annoying her a bit. "So are you trying to address the fact that your always right, or is there some message behind this, because I don't have the time to sit here and listen to you talk about…"

Ezio turned to her giving her a hard glare. "I'm trying to say something and you keep on interrupting. It's hard enough that I have to say this, but you're really not making this any easier."

"Sorry." She apologized, looking downwards. Ezio sighed a little, but after a minute or two, turned towards her and looked her deep in the eyes.

"I felt extremely bad for yelling at you, and getting mad as well, because after thinking about it I had no reason to be mad. Sure you had not told me certain information, but maybe you kept it away for me for a good reason. I'm assuming that it was to protect me and I thank you for that. Being away from you that long was actually quite hard," he admitted, smiling sheepishly. "I must say that you're personality has had some of an effect on me and every time I think about you, it makes me smile."

Amalia felt her heart race as Ezio poured out words that made her blush uncontrollably. Him saying all these things about her made her feel like she was in a fairytale where the prince complimented his princess all the time. Maybe this was too good to be true, but she had to continue listening to him to see what else he was going to say. "What I'm trying to say is that…I like you Amalia. Being away from you that long has made me figure out my feelings and that, no you're not some pestering friend that follows me around all the time…"

'_Oh thanks Ezio. A man that has a way with words.' _She thought, mentally rolling her eyes.

"You're someone that I'm starting to fall for." He stopped, turning away, a slight blush spreading across his cheeks. _'Oh my gosh! Ezio just blushed. This should totally be a hallmark moment. I never thought that a day would come, when an arrogant man such as Ezio would confess to a girl that he likes. Especially when that girl is me.' _

Amalia grinned so widely, she swore that the sun was permanently glued to her smile, because she was really beaming sunshine. Talk about barfing rainbows from how lame of a confession that was, but it was still something. "But…I don't think that I'm a man that you want…well if you even like me…."

"I do like you!" She blurted out. Her hands slapped against her mouth as she scolded herself mentally for ever blurting that out loud and looking like a complete fool. "But I think that my past record isn't really that acceptable. So I think we should just remain friends."

Amalia's eyebrows creased in confusion, and she titled it trying to take everything in that was just said. "So let me get this straight..." She started, putting a finger into the air to help her process everything better. "You like me."

Ezio nodded.

"I like you." He also nodded again.

"And you just confessed that you are starting to fall for me, but you want to remain….friends."

He nodded again, making her even more confused than before.

"Isn't the point of this entire speech to say that we both want each other and should just take a shot in the dark and date each other?" Her statement came out more of a question, because…she obviously was confused and needed for Ezio to elaborate more on this so called…friendship dating, non-dating thing. "I know it's a little confusing…"

"Uh-huh. You're telling me." Her eyes rolled, and she crossed her arms trying to leave her mind open. People always did say that you should keep your mind open and try new things. "Look. I know that you have a problem with me visiting brothels—"

"I never said that." She spit out, turning around to glare at him. "What made you think that I had a problem with that?" Ezio just gave her the look. Yes the look where it spells "I-K-N-O-W-Y-O-U-R-L-Y-I-N-G". "So maybe I'm a little annoyed." She responded, letting that sentence hang in the air like a fishing hook. Ezio just intensified his gaze and she huffed. "Ok so fine! I admit," She yelled, throwing her hands into the air. "I am miffed by the fact that you sleep with every single thing that has two legs and can walk. I don't really think that any girl would appreciate that."

"I just wanted to hear it coming out of your mouth." He teased, pushing her lightly on the shoulder. Amalia let out an annoyed noise and crossed her arms, clearly irritated that he would do something like that. "You know I was just kidding, _bella_."

"Can we just get back on topic please! I really think that we need to discuss this fully, so that I might be able to understand everything. Are we supposed to be a non-boyfriend, non-girlfriend that have feelings with each other, but don't want to rush into a relationship because of the others track record?"

"What do you mean by track record?" Fuck! There he goes again with the Demarco look. She swore that the next person that did that, she was seriously going to ring their necks. How many times does she need to see that, just to be reminded of Demarco? She just couldn't stand that goddamn head tilt.

For one it was so damn adorable, and two it was just so goddamn adorable to see it happen after she spoke, because they didn't understand a phrase that she said. Amalia held back the urge to squeal and jump on top of him. Thank god she had some type of dignity and self-control left. "Basically it means what you've done in your past."

He nodded kind of understanding what she was trying to say. "So does that mean that we're not officially together?"

"No, but I think we should just continue on our daily regimen, and see how it takes us. I believe that we should take this one step at a time." It was silent for a moment as Amalia thought on something to say. What was bothering her, stopping her from saying what she was going to say, was the reaction that she might get from Ezio. Her questioned was going to be about kissing…which should probably be the least of her worries, but it was just something that was on her mind. It wasn't like she hadn't imagined kissing him, but she didn't want to kiss him if his mind was going to be on prostitutes.

She's seen the way he's looked at them as they had traveled throughout Firenze. All in all it was hard to contain herself watching Ezio lust after them. Yes, she has heard them having sex before, which actually wasn't so pleasant. Ezio thinks that he was being quiet at Leonardo's, but he was actually way too loud. "What are you thinking about?" Ezio asked, placing his hand on top of hers. His hand touching hers made her flinch, but it was barely visible, and she was glad that he hadn't seen it because she was sure that he would have a hurt look on his face. "I was just thinking about…us I guess."

"No you weren't." He bluntly stated "You were thinking about us kissing, huh."

"Eww no!" She lied, trying to cover her fear. "I wouldn't want to kiss a herpes infested man. I've seen those cold sores."

"What!" Ezio asked, confused. _'Oh yeah, that's right. They don't have that yet…well they do, but their just unaware of it.'_

"Uhhhh…nothing. Don't worry about it. I was just saying that I don't want to kiss you because I don't want to be indirectly kissing a prostitute. That's just weird." She stuck her tongue out, to emphasis her point more, but backed up a little bit as Ezio leaned in closer. "What the hell are you doing?" She asked, slightly frightened by his sheer directness. "I was going to kiss you to silence your thoughts."

"Did you not just hear what I said?"

He shook his head, a slight smile dancing across his lips. God were they so plump and nice. For a guy, they didn't look chapped at all, but it looked actually quiet soft. His lips weren't thin, thank god because Amalia absolutely hated thin lips with a burning passion, but they weren't that bad. She could deal with what she had. For some strange reason though, she felt herself leaning in, but quickly snapped out of it as Ezio coughed a little. "Um...sorry." She mumbled, scratching the back of head in a little bit of embarrassment at what she was about to do."

"It's fine really. I just didn't know you wanted to kiss me that badly." She glared at him and stood up, not wanting to have to hear his arrogant self, which she really did love about him, anymore. "Look. I'm hungry, and I think it would be best if we talked about this after breakfast. I'm sure then that we won't be completely confused on what we want exactly."

"I already know what I want." Ezio said confidently, sliding a hand around her waist, and pulled her closer. Her hands rested against his chest automatically making her smile, despite the fact that she wanted to wipe the smirk off of his face, and add another scar to match the one that he already had. "You're lucky I like you. Or your dog will end up like the one I kicked earlier."

"But I do not own a dog." Ezio replied wittily. "Yeah, well then I'll buy you a dog…wait till you get attached to it, and then kick it."

"You are a very cruel and sick person, you know that right!" Ezio said, not trying to hold back the laugh that bubbled up his throat and out his mouth. "Yeah well that's why you love me!" She flashed a toothy grin up at him, also making him return the smile.

"Yes. That's why I love you." He whispered, placing a quick kiss to the corner of her mouth.

Fuck. She was falling fast.


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: This has been by far the weirdest thing that I've ever done in a fanfiction. I was getting fed up of typing Chapter 10 because nothing was flowing to me so I started Chapter 12 because I already knew how I was going to finish Chapter 10, so I didn't think it would matter. So I finished this chapter first before going back to chapter 10…. O.o…Oddest thing ever. But I kept getting writer's block and had no idea how to word things. I kept getting stuck on which words to incorporate into it and it was just a mess in my book, but I guess it was fine since I got a lot of views..so yeah. Forgive the short chapter because by the end of it I wanted to chuck my computer out of my window. So sorry about the broken promise about making the next one longer….kinda didn't go according to plan.**

**Also thank you to those that have read my story and reviewed. It really does mean a lot to me to see people enjoying my story as much as I enjoy writing it. **

**Disclaimer: bdsjkakdjadjadajfklasj don't own Ezio. Blah! Kill me and cry me a bucket of slop**

**OoOoOo**

The year was 1480 in Repubblica Fiorentina and she couldn't have been happier. Her and Ezio were back on speaking terms and they were no longer friends….if you could say that. They recognized that they had feelings for each other, but neither made an effort to push it to a relationship of dating. Amalia didn't want a relationship at all with Ezio, but she felt something for him. If it was anyone else that had been observing them outside of their close circle, they would have found it oddly strange how they treated each other. For one, if you liked someone and the other liked you back sooner or later they would end up being boyfriend and girlfriend, but neither of them wanted that.

Amalia didn't want to ruin their relationship, and Ezio didn't want to pursue one. He of course said that he was attracted to her, but his record didn't really scream boyfriend material as here and there he would be caught with a prostitute in a brothel house. Amalia didn't mind….much, but she told him that if he ever did have sex with a random girl, to not tell her, because she didn't want to be that…non-girlfriend type that clung to her…non-boyfriend and told him what to do all the time. Amalia scrunched her eyebrows together utterly confused at titling Ezio as her non-boyfriend. It was just weird to say and she had no idea how to make of this entire…relationship issue.

Mario had found it confusing on a whole, constantly asking why the both of them hadn't just gotten together.

Claudia on the other hand refused to speak of the situation, clearly angry at Amalia that she hadn't just given up her feelings for Ezio.

How could you just give up feelings for someone like that? It just didn't work with a snap of your fingers. Amalia had been amused at her reaction though, watching her stomp up the villa's staircase wanting it to be known that she was angry at them. God if only Ezio had kissed her right then and there, Claudia would have probably exploded.

And that would have been hilarious to see.

Amalia snapped out of her thoughts as she and Ezio entered into a small courtyard where Lorenzo and three other people were standing. The both of them walked up to him as he turned around a smile on his face. "The Pazzi are dead. Every one of them." Ezio told him, watching as Lorenzo visibly let go of the tension that was coursing throughout his body. "I must admit, I've never before believed I could desire the death of others so badly."

"Nor I…" Ezio said as well.

'_I could.'_ Amalia admitted in her brain. Of course she would think twice about saying that out loud because the both of them were bound to look at her as if she had some problem. "Ezio," Lorenzo said placing a hand on his upper arm, just a little bit below his shoulder. "Thank you for the role you've played in keeping this dream of mine a live a little longer," He turned towards Amalia. "As well as you my dear…" She nodded, thanking him for at least acknowledging her presence.

"L'onore e mio, Signore (It's my honor Signore)."

"What will you do now, figliolo (my boy)?" Amalia still felt a little left out at the fact that he was only addressing Ezio, but she dealt with it and stood there, quiet as a mouse. She didn't want to be rude and interrupt their conversation as it was clear that Lorenzo was much friendlier and comfortable with Ezio than he was with her.

That didn't mean that it didn't hurt though.

"There are still others I must hunt, Signore. They're already digging their claws into the heart of Venezia." Lorenzo's eyes widened a second before he turned away to look at anywhere, but Ezio. "_No La bella Venezia_… (Beautiful Venice…). Then that is where your journey must take you, Ezio. "

"Before you leave us…I have something for you. A gift!"

A man clothed in a white and green type tunic with a green hat on came up next to Lorenzo and Ezio, showing the garments that lay in his hand. "This cape identifies you as a friend of the Medici. As long as you wear it, the city guards will be more tolerate of your actions. But be warned, it will not grant you immunity from the law."

Oh just great. Ezio gets a cape that practically protects him from the guards while little 'ol Amalia gets squat. It was like she really didn't exist to him. He knew that she traveled with Ezio, so the least that he could have done was given her one as well, seeing as how she put her ass on the line for people. Ezio nodded, and she watched as he quickly slipped on the cape without a second thought.

'_Lucky bastard,'_ she thought.

"_Che fortuna favorisca la tua lama!_ (Fortune favor your blade!)" He bowed and Amalia followed suit even though she had no respect for the man any longer. How could he be so…? She didn't know how to finish that sentence, but instead turned around and followed Ezio outside of the courtyard and into the streets.

"So where are we headed next?" She asked, avoiding a man who was holding a huge box in his hands. "We must go visit Leonardo."

"Really!" Amalia said, jumping up and down excitedly. "I haven't seen Leonardo in a while. I can't wait until we get there. He's probably still messy as ever." Both of them chuckled and continued walking in silence through the streets until they got to his shop. Ezio went ahead and knocked on the door, but no answer was heard. "Leonardo! Leonardo!" He called, pounding on the door a couple more times.

A man who was wearing a tan tunic with a white shirt under it as well as brown pants approached them from in the crowd, addressing them personally. "_Mi dispiace _(I'm sorry), Messer, but he is gone. Maestro Leonardo was commissioned by a Venetian noble to paint some portraits. He paid for the Maestro to move his entire workshop to Venezia. It's quite an opportunity!" Ezio nodded, and Amalia's smile dropped. She was glad that this man was here to tell them where he had run off to otherwise they would have never known where Leonardo had gone.

"_Grazie mille_ (Thanks a lot), friend." Ezio told him, bowing a little bit. After the man left, Amalia followed Ezio as he started walking in a random direction. "Wait, so what do we do now!" She asked now walking next to him. "We must find Leonardo before he reaches Venezia."

"And how do you suggest we do that?" She asked, not really getting at what Ezio was trying to say. "The only way to get to the port that takes you to Venice is to go through the mountains." Ezio explained, now going at a jogging pace. He didn't want to waste time here un-necessarily and he quickly started running through the streets avoiding people who were standing around chatting. Amalia had some trouble keeping up with him because, hands down, Ezio was a much faster runner than she was and he knew that to.

So why was he running so damn fast? Because he wanted her to increase her speed and train her legs to go at a faster pace. Her legs didn't appreciate that and neither did she. That was why when Ezio picked up his pace she decided that she wasn't going to go as fast as him, because she already knew where he was headed. Plus she knew a better shortcut and would arrive there before he did. All she had to do was hire a bunch of prostitutes to follow after Ezio to distract him while she got there faster.

As Ezio passed a group of courtesans Amalia stopped and quickly exchanged a few words with them, explaining that she needed to get to the gates first before he did. "Just make sure you distract him for a couple of minutes ok." They giggled and ran after him, skirts flying up high because of the wind. Amalia climbed a nearby shop and started jumping from roof to roof, watching as they managed to stop Ezio. She could see a grin on his face, and she knew that he wasn't going to get to the gates any time soon.

This was going to be fun.

**OoOoOo**

"What took you so damn long?" She asked, arms crossed and foot tapping impatiently.

"I think you know." He responded, walking past her to mount a horse that was drinking water. "Oh, really now!" Her eyebrows rose even though she wanted to smile and admit that, yes, it was all her that did that. "Yes. Really!" He responded.

"I see. So you didn't really enjoy my little gift."

"Not really. I already have you. Why would I need a puttana to satisfy me?" Amalia's eyes narrowed at Ezio as he mounted the horse after it had finished drinking. Exactly what was this man up to. Hearing those words coming out of his mouth should have made her feel happy and jump on top of him excited, but it made everything just seem a little suspicious. Now that he said that, she was a little more watchful over him. Even as they raced through the mountains to catch up to Leonardo that same voice kept popping up into her head, telling her that something just wasn't right.

Wasn't the whole point of this relationship was to be a little more loose than normal ones. You're probably wondering why exactly she's asking the question, but when something changes from a norm to a non-norm thing, something just smells fishy.

Amalia made a mental note to keep a close eye on him as they came to a complete stop next to Leonardo who was struggling with his wagon. It seemed that it was broken from the inside of the wheel as she could see that Leonardo's hand disappeared behind it. As the both of them got off the horses and approached Leonardo, he turned around and flashed them a 100 watt smile, which blinded her.

"Leonardo!" Ezio called, making his presence known, even though Leonardo had already spotted them before. "Ezio! Amalia! What luck! I…uh…I've run into a bit of trouble." He spoke, scratching behind his head a bit.

"Let me see if I can help." Ezio offered, walking closer towards the wagon. Leonardo smiled and pointed at the wagon. "I know how to fix it but lack the means to do so. If you could just lift the wagon?" Amalia watched on the side as Ezio lifted up the wagon, grunting a little from the weight that he was lifting.

"What is this thing?" Ezio asked peeking inside of the wagon as Leonardo tended to fixing it.

"Eh?"

"It looks like a giant bat."

"Oh nothing. Just an idea I've been working on…I could not leave it behind." Leonardo motioned for Ezio to drop the wagon and he dropped it will dusting his hands off. "What is it for?" Ezio asked, stepping back a little. "Well I shouldn't really talk about it…" Leonardo said, trailing off a bit. "Beh. _Al Diavolo _(What the hell!). I can't hold it in anymore. Ezio! I think I've figured out how to make a man fly!" Leonardo told the both of them excitedly. Amalia watched as Ezio snorted amusedly and brushed him off like what he had just said was nothing.

"Come on. I'll drive." Ezio told him chuckling a bit while walking to the front of the wagon. A defeated look crossed Leonardo's face, but Amalia placed a hand on his shoulder and smiled. "Don't worry, Leo. I think that that's a cool idea. Wouldn't it be awesome to have a flying man?" She yelled happily while throwing her hands in the air to cheer him up.

"Ah thank you Amalia for showing some interest in my works." She flashed a smile and hopped into the back of the wagon, not wanting to ride up front with Ezio and Leonardo because she figured that it would be too tight. "Don't worry Leonardo," She yelled so that her voice could travel to the front where Leonardo was seated. "I've got your back, even when certain friends don't." Amalia could hear the snort up front coming out of Ezio's mouth and she did nothing but laugh.

It really is a lot of fun to bother Ezio. He seemed to get nettled by the littlest things, whether it come from her mouth or anyone else's mouth.

Well mostly from her mouth, and she loved every second of it.

**OoOoOo**

"Venezia! Such a beautiful city! So many sources of inspiration! Ponte di Rialto, Piazza San Marco, L'Arsenale…"

"Shh!" Ezio hissed, raising his arm a bit and waving it back and forth.

"What's wrong?" Leonardo asked, a little surprised at Ezio's interjection during his little speech.

"We're not alone." Ezio told them. "Oh now you notice Sherlock. You see little 'ol Amalia is sitting back here watching a herd of ANGRY LOOKING MEN coming up from behind, about to chase our asses off this mountain." Leonardo and Ezio turned around simultaneously to see a few guards on horses catching up with them.

"What's happening! Who are they?" Leonardo questioned, holding unto his hat as they sped up.

"Rodrigo Borgia's men…" He informed. "Why? What do they want with us?" Amalia watched as the man closest to the wagon shot an arrow which headed straight for the front where Ezio and Leonardo were sitting. "Watch out!" She warned. The wagon swerved a bit and Ezio steadied it back in place after successfully dodging the arrow that was about to lodge itself into his head. "I think they want us dead." Ezio said tugging on the reigns a bit to make the horses go faster.

"Leonardo! Hide!" Amalia yelled. She opened the top of the wagon and helped him down into the cart away from the arrows that were zooming past them. "Ezio if you drive this wagon off the cliff, so help me god I will find your mangled body and stab it as much as I can."

"That is very reassuring Amalia. Thank you for your support." She smiled, knowing that he would take that as a 'be careful' instead of the actual thought. Let's just say that they have ways with communicating with each other so that no one else knows what they're saying. This actually helps because in situations where they are around other people, they'd be able to communicate with different words very easily.

"There's a man coming up on your left, and he looks pretty darn angry!" She warned. "Leonardo. You stay down at all costs. I'm going to go up front with Ezio and get the guards off our trail. _Capito_ (Got it)!" Leonardo nodded, and she shoved a knife in his hand just in case Rodrigo's men tried anything. "Be careful..." Leonardo whispered in her ear. She nodded and opened the hatch at the top, joining Ezio up front where all the action was taking place. "What are you doing up here. I told you to stay down there."

"No you told Leonardo to stay down there." Ezio gave her a side glance and sighed knowing that he wasn't going to convince her to stay down there. "You are one stubborn woman Amalia."

"Yeah, but that's why you love me." He didn't answer that.

And why should she expect him to. It's not like they were supposed to be tied down together. But she still felt a twinge of hurt in her heart when he didn't answer. He didn't even smile either like he usually would when she said that sentence. "Arghhh!" She heard yelling from behind and turned to see one of them men dangerously close to them. Amalia unsheathed her throwing knife and held it in her hand, waiting for the man to come closer so that she could use it on him. "They're trying to climb onboard! Knock them off!" Leonardo yelled. "Dammit." She hissed. Amalia turned around and started crawling on the top of the wagon so that she could get closer to the edge where the man was hanging off. When she got close enough, she was about to stab the throwing knife into his hand, but Ezio swerved the cart causing the man to fall off, and her to go rolling dangerously close to the edge.

"Could you be any worse at driving this thing!" She screamed, catching herself before falling off of the wagon. "I'm trying to get these guys off the wagon and you keep swerving the damn thing."

"No one told you to go on the back of the wagon!" Ezio retorted, swerving again just to make his point.

'_I seriously am going to hell when I'm done with him.'_ She thought. "Fine! Then the next time someone comes on top you can get rid of them your own damn way." Amalia was fuming as she climbed into the back where Leonardo was. All she tried to do was help and here she was getting ridiculed for it. What kind of person does that? Oh wait, Ezio's the type of person to do that.

Amalia swore that he was doing this on purpose just to get her mad. Well if he was, then it was clearly working because she was sitting in the corner stabbing the knife into the wood. "_Mia cara_. I am sure that he means nothing by what he says..." Leonardo told her, trying to cheer her up a bit which was honestly a fail in her book. Instead of responding to him she jutted out her bottom lip into a pout.

"Amalia…" Leonardo whispered, taking his hand and putting it under her chin. She looked up at him, but her eyes were focused on the man climbing into the cart. "WATCH OUT!" She pushed Leonardo down and sliced the man's arm that was reaching out towards them. Amalia then used both of her feet to kick the man in the chest, which sent him out of the cart and rolling unto the ground. "Ezio! You have to shake these people off!" She screamed! Gosh was this man so stupid. If it wasn't for her looking up, Leonardo would've probably been stabbed in the back by now.

This didn't help her mood get any better as she realized that it was her fault for not paying attention to what was happening around her. Her thoughts were so focused on Ezio that her concentration went straight out through the window and Leonardo was put in danger. Why was it that every single time her thoughts roamed to Ezio, something bad always has to happen? It was like just saying his name brought bad things towards her. Amalia huffed and her thoughts were shattered as Ezio yelled out something that made her blood run cold.

"Hold on tight, this is going to be a little rough!" Amalia looked out the side to see that Rodrigo's men were burning the bridge. Ezio Auditore de Firenze was going to cross a burning bridge with passengers. What in the hell is he thinking! Amalia stared hyperventilating at the thought of Ezio crossing the bridge and it just collapsing which would send them to their doom. "Holy fuck!" She whispered harshly to herself as the bridge came closer and closer into view. He was actually going to race right through the fire. He was actually going to go through the fire.

No Ezio wasn't going to be a normal person and just try and find another direction in which they could go in. No, he was going to do the stupidest thing that anyone could ever think of.

This man was going to go through fucking fire, like he was Satan or something and could easily survive it. "I can't watch!" She said placing her hands over her eyes and squeezing them shut. Amalia felt so much heat that she swore she was inside of an oven. Her skin felt like someone was taking a carrot shredder and peeling her skin off with it. Her hair became stuck to her face, and her feet started tingling. Before she knew it, the immense amount of heat went away, and she felt a cool breeze being blown into her face.

They made it. With Ezio's crazy driving skills, and mad brain they made it. Who would've guessed that they were going to go through flames and make it? Amalia laughed to herself at her stupidity. She should have just trusted Ezio instead of doubting him. Maybe that was what was holding her back.

Whatever that meant.

As they continued to travel flaming arrows started being thrown at them. Amalia screamed as one almost came in contact with the back of the wagon as Leonardo started to climb out and into the front seat with Ezio. "Oh yeah! Thanks for just leaving me back here Leonardo. Just great."

"Go Leonardo! They're here for me, not you! I'll catch up with you two later!"Ezio handed over the reins to Leonardo and jumped off the wagon doing a bit of a roll to break his fall. Amalia watched as Ezio's back came in contact with the ground and he started to roll a bit. Her eyes made contact with his and he smirked as they continued to travel. A bunch of horses started surrounding him and Amalia's heart raced. She knew that he was an amazing assassin, but the thought of him getting hurt was enough to make her worried about him "Leonardo, what the hell is he doing!" She questioned, sticking her head out of the top of the wagon.

"He's going to hold off them while we go on ahead."

"But there are too many of them." She watched as Leonardo shrugged and continued manning the reigns so that that could reach their destination quickly.

Looks like she's going to have to trust Ezio on this one.

**OoOoOo  
**

"WHAT!" She screamed yanking at her hair as the man standing in front of the boat just gave her a strange look. "If you need me to repeat…"

"I don't need you to fucking repeat yourself. I heard you the first time!" Amalia slumped onto the ground as Leonardo came up next to her, patting her on the back in a gesture of comfort. "I'm sure you will find a pass somewhere Amalia. Don't give up."

"Easy for you to say, seeing as you have a freaking boat pass…" She trailed off as she yanked at her hair a bit showing that she was just nervous about finding one. "Can't I just kill the man and sneak unto the ship." She whispered into Leonardo's ear. He gave her a look of disgust, but shook his head. "You cannot kill the man Amalia. Nothing should ever be resorted to killing."

"Yeah, but Ezio does it!" She whined. Amalia knew that she was acting like a baby, but how else was she to get her way.

Maybe if she bribed the man, he would come around. Her eyes lit up mischievously in which Leonardo looked at her strangely, as if he knew what she was thinking. "No!" He said firmly, grabbing her arm before she could walk over there. "But…"

"No!" He said again, but a little bit harsher as if he was the father, saying no to his daughter.

'_Maybe the puppy dog eyes would work.'_ Amalia turned around and did the puppy dog eyes, and pouted a bit to make the effect even better. "Pwetty Pwease!" She asked, leaning forward a bit so that her nose was almost touching his. "As amusing as this looks, the answer is still no." She pulled back and cursed under her breath. "But that always works."

"Well find another way to get a boat pass Amalia. I'm sure that you'll be able to get one." Amalia watched as Leonardo walked away, and she made sure that his back was turned before walking up towards the man that stood at the entrance of the boat. "So tell me Messer…"

The man turned towards her and once he saw her face he sighed and crossed his arms. "Do you have a pass?" He asked, stretching out his hand.

"See that's the thing..." She told him, scratching her head and laughing a little. "I was wondering…would 2000 florins do." The man's eyebrows raised and he gave her a look that clearly said are-you-kidding-me. "Are you trying to bribe me?" The man asked. "Is that what this looks like?" Amalia waving her hand between the both of them. "I'm sure that 2000 would cover it though." She whispered softly, arms crossed behind her back in an innocent gesture. "Do you have a boat pass or not?" The man asked, clearly fed up with her.

"DAMMIT! FINE!" Amalia yelled throwing her hands into the air. "I'LL GET YOU YOUR DAMN BOAT PASS!" Amalia stomped off down the platform to the boat and stood next to Leonardo, clearly angered by how stupid the man was. He could have had 2000 florins in his pocket, but he instead was too darn stubborn and stuck to his innocent ways. "Bribery isn't that bad." She said to herself, but Leonardo overheard and turned towards her. "What!" She asked throwing her hands into the air. "It's not."

Leonardo wasn't looking directly at her, so she turned around to see Leonardo looking at a silver cape in the distance. "Ezio! Here. Over here!"He called, waving his hands up and down to give him their location. About a minute or two later, Ezio came up to them a little out of breath, but still in good shape. She didn't see any wounds on him and she thanked the Lord that he wasn't hurt at all.

"Thank you Ezio! You saved my life!"

"I did what had to be done. You would have done the same."_ 'Blah Blah Blah' _she said in her head, not really wanting to hear the crap that was coming out of Ezio's mouth. Just looking at his face irritated her at the moment, and she wasn't in the mood to deal with his smug attitude.

"I doubt it. Bravery's not my strong suit. I owe you a debt brother."

"_Di niente _(It's nothing)."

Amalia smiled at their bromance moment, and was just waiting for that hug to come, but the stupid man that had prevented her from getting on board started yelling. _"Tutti a bordo! Fra poco si sapla!_ (All aboard! We're leaving soon!)"

"That's our _traghetto_ (ferry). Venezia awaits!"

"Where's your pass?" The man asked in general, seeing as how Leonardo, Ezio and herself were standing in a circle near the man. "What pass?"

"Oh god." She mumbled under her breath. Amalia put a hand to the bridge of her nose and pinched it. "You don't have a pass?" Leonardo asked. "Why would he have a pass? If the man just asked 'What pass', what makes you think that he has it." Thankfully no one had heard her mumbles, or if they had they didn't acknowledge what she had said at all.

"You cannot enter Venezia without a pass. Who invited you?"

"Umm...Nobody." Ezio was at a loss for words here. "_Basta!_ (Stop)" The man yelled harshly. "No pass no entrance."

"Don't worry Leonardo. I'll come up with something." Without warning a woman started yelling from behind them. Amalia whipped her head around to see a woman standing on what seemed to be an island in the middle of a body of water. How exactly the woman had managed to get herself there? Only god knows how. In Amalia's mind though, the words ringing around were, 'What the fuck'.

"Don't just stand there! I need help."

And of course, not that she's surprised, Ezio cannot help but be attracted to Damsels in Distress, so he of course grabbed a boat from nearby and started rowing his way towards the woman. Amalia watched as he managed to get there without any problems at all and helped the woman into the boat. Her blood boiled as she watched Ezio put his hands around her waist to help her into the boat. The woman's not a paraplegic or anything. She does have an arm that you can grab unto, or maybe a HAND, but who's saying anything.

She obviously doesn't really care what he does, so she should just find a way to get unto the boat or something. Amalia couldn't stand looking over there anymore, so she turned around and started walking off, but a hand caught her wrist stopping her from moving. "Where are you going Amalia?" She turned her head to the side to see Leonardo standing there, confusion in his eyes. "Well I can't get myself a boat pass, so I might as well just travel back to Monteriggioni, right!"

"But there must surely be someone here willing to give a boat pass to you. Maybe if we ask Ezio…"

"Oh no!" She waved her hands in front of her face not wanting to have to deal with him at the moment. "Don't ask him. I'm sure he doesn't want to be disturbed by me. He looks like he's having fun…" Amalia cut her words short as Ezio and that woman arrived on the dock. She watched as the woman approached the man standing in front of the boat, and they both had a heated conversation in which both Leonardo and Amalia couldn't hear at all.

"Yes Signora…Whatever you say Signora…"

The woman smiled a bit and made her way towards where the three of them were standing. She stopped in front of Ezio and smiled at him. Amalia already hated her.

"He won't trouble you anymore. I took care of it."

"Thank you Caterina." Ezio bowed his head in respect.

'_So her name's Caterina…huh. Already on a first name basis before the first date. Interesting.'_

"Perhaps we'll see each other again…Should you ever find yourself in the city of Forli, it would be my pleasure to welcome you…" Caterina had a seductive look on her face, which made Amalia fume in the spot that she was standing in. She swore that if her anger had turned into fire, the entire dock would be aflame from the rage that she was holding against Caterina. She hadn't even met the woman properly and already harbored such hatred.

"I look forward to enjoying your hospitality." Ezio said. They both smiled at each other and Caterina started to walk off, but Amalia caught her arm and dragged her in a corner were Leonardo and Ezio couldn't hear. She could just feel the confusion emanating off of Ezio as he watched her drag Caterina off into a corner. "Listen here," She hissed, grabbing unto Caterina's wrist that wasn't visible to Ezio. "I don't like the fact that you're talking to Ezio, but I'll let that pass if you do me a favor."

"And why should I do a favor for you! You drag me off into this corner, disgracing me in front of all these people, and you expect me to do something for you?" She whispered harshly trying to rip her hand out of Amalia's grip. The more she tried to struggled, the stronger Amalia's grip became. "Try any harder, and I'll continue to squeeze until I snap your wrist."

Caterina stopped struggling as a shocked look crossed her face. "You wouldn't dare."

"Try me." She said, moving back part of her cloak to reveal knifes that were attached to the inside. Caterina's breath hitched a bit and her eyes started looking around. Making sure that no one was listening Caterina started whispering into her ear. "What do you want?"

"A boat pass to get unto that ship that will be leaving to Venezia."

"Tell the man at the entrance these exact words and you'll gain passage." Amalia nodded, and waited as Caterina told her the words. "Tell him Caterina Sforza, as the ruler of Forli and Imola demands that, tell him your name, be let unto this ship without a boat passage." Amalia nodded, and released her grip on Caterina. "See that wasn't so hard was it." She smirked at Caterina and made her way over to the man standing in front of the boat. She ignored Ezio as he tried to ask her a question, and instead walked right up the same man.

"Do you have a boat pass?" The man asked once again. "No, but I do have a message."

"And what would that be." He replied. "Caterina Sforza, as the ruler of Forli and Imola demands that, I, Amalia Salvatore de Luca be let unto this ship without a boat passage."

"And how can I trust that she said that instead of you making that up." He continued, still not sure if he should let her unto the ship. "You can trust my knives…" She told him, moving back her cloak so that he could see them. "Oh…O-Oh, Um. Yes. You may pass."

"Please accept my most humble apologies, Messer, and Signorina. Had I known…?"

The man chuckled a little bit and stepped aside for them to enter. As Ezio and Amalia walked side by side up the platform and unto the ship, he grabbed her arm and spun her around so that they could talk. "What was that?" He asked, a little anger lacing his voice. "Nothing, I just needed a boat pass, and I got one."

She shrugged out of his touch and walked to the other side of the boat as it started to pull away from the dock. She watched Leonardo approach Ezio and they started talking, in which she eavesdropped. "Be careful Ezio. Do you know who that was?"

"My next conquest." He answered, laughing a bit. Ezio shifted his eyes over to Amalia as they said that, and she felt hurt as he said that while watching her. Talk about no shame at all. "I don't think so Ezio." Leonardo spoke while crossing his arms. "That's Caterina Sforza, daughter of the Dica di Milano. Her husband is..."

"Husband?" He cut of Leonardo, shocked a little that she was married. "Si. Her husband is the Lord of Forli. That woman is as powerful and dangerous as she is young and beautiful."

"_Sembra come una donna per me _(Sounds like my kind of lady.)."

Amalia glared at Ezio as he said that. How could he have said that when she was standing right there? Well, despite the fact that she was on the other side of the ship, but still. Talk about trying to be obvious about sending a message. After that little speech that he had given her before about how much he had liked her, all of that went straight out the window. Ezio should now know that from saying that he shouldn't expect any love from her at all.

Amalia now knew what type of man he was and she was glad that they hadn't done anything at all. But there was still that type of love from him at the back of her head. Despite her saying that she shouldn't like him anymore, it was easier said to stop loving than it was done.

And she knew that it wouldn't just take a day to stop liking him. She couldn't even decipher if she loved him or liked him, and at that point it means that you're already two feet in.

At the moment she was head over heels, and she hated that.

"Fuck you Auditore." She mumbled, walking to the bottom deck to try and escape encountering him at all means. "Just fuck you…"


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: This chapter…*sigh* I can't tell you how any times I've written and re-written and re-written this thing. I'm so sorry if it comes out wrong, but nothing would flow and I stayed up till 3:00 in the morning these past few days trying to get the right words unto Word…but I just can't help but thing how bad this chapter came out. I'm so so sorry if this isn't as good as the other ones, but the complications of Ezio and Amalia's relationship just can't get to me...and I just can't write it the way I want to. Stuff didn't come out properly and it's just UGH! So I had to cut the chapter short because I got fed up with writing it, and I needed to continue on with the story, so I'm sorry about this again.**

**Also, I changed up the point of view, so sorry if it's weird that I use I like every other word. I find it harder to write in this point of view, hence why I don't do it often.**

**So if you guys have like any ideas...ANY IDEAS! Please I'm desperate for something! And thank you to the following people who have reviewed my story! **

**BeachVampire17**

**Xxnikkigirl123xX**

**ardx**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Ezio. Only Amalia, and their soon to be relationship…if it ever happens…really! If it really ever happens -_-**

**OoOoOo**

"Is there something the matter?" Leonardo asked me, placing a hand on my shoulder. I shook my head because I didn't want to bother Leonardo with my problems at all. It seemed that he already had enough trouble with Ezio so bothering him with my problems wouldn't be fair to him. "You can tell me anything."He said, trying to make me feel a little bit better. "Well…" I started, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. "There is this one problem that I have."

"And what would that be my dear." Leonardo said sitting down on the bed next to me. "Well..."I said scratching behind my head. "Ezio and I have a…um…how do I say this. We both have a complicated relationship."

"What do you mean?" Leonardo asked, his eyebrows creased in confusion. "I have feelings for Ezio, and he confessed to me that he also has feelings for me, but watching how he acts around other woman, I feel like he lied to me. We aren't really exactly dating because of that, but still…"

"Ezio's not the best person to date because of his ways with woman, but if you truly like him then nothing should stop you from that. I believe that it would be best to take a break from him and see what happens."

"You really think so?" I asked looking up at him with hope in my eyes. "Or instead of sitting here, you should find him and talk to him. It is best to talk things out." I sighed and put my head in between my knees frustrated with myself. "How can I talk to him now? I gave him the dirtiest look I could muster when he was talking to you, and I even cursed him out when coming down here. I can't possibly face him."

"Yes you can!" Leonardo said, patting me on the back and flashing me a huge smile. "I'm sure that if the both of you talk then everything will be solved and the both of you will be back on speaking terms."

"And what makes you so sure about that."

"I've known Ezio for quite some time now, Amalia. He doesn't know how to express his emotions properly and he's a very stubborn person. Both you and him fit perfectly together because the both of you are complete opposites."

"And how does being complete opposites help?" I said, my voice muffled a little by my knees. "Well they always say that opposites attract!" He sounded a little un-sure on the last part, but I figured that maybe talking to him won't hurt that much. Maybe then we'd be able to get all of our thoughts out into the air and get everything off of our chests. "I guess I could try it…" I sighed and stood up stretching out my limbs a bit. "I'm sure he has much to say to you." Leonardo told her getting up as well so that he was now standing next to her. "Do you really think that he would actually listen to me, and what I have to say?"

"I'm sure that if he likes you then he would not have a reason to not listen to you."

"You're probably right." I said, placing a hand on my chin. "Do you know where he is right now?" I asked, walking towards the door to leave the room that we were currently occupying. "Uh..I believe that he is still on the top deck. That was where I last saw him at least."

"Thanks Leonardo! That helped a bit." I quickly hugged him and then ran out the room to go find Ezio. On the way to the top deck I started thinking of what exactly I should say to him. It was kind of hard to think of something to say seeing as how he was clearly wrong in this situation, but maybe if I decided to be the bigger person and apologize everything would go back to normal…somewhat at least. I opened the hatch that led to the upper deck trying not to make too much noise as I pulled myself up and out of the opening. I was greeted with darkness that surrounded the entire ship and twinkling stars that shone in the sky. The night sky was beautiful at this time as no cloud blocked the moon from shining down on the ship. It was actually quite romantic if you think about it.

Not that I'm thinking about that. I was just here to talk to Ezio. Nothing more.

"Ezio..." I called softly, looking around to see if he was actually up here. There was movement in the corner of my eye and I turned around to find Ezio with his back turned to me. I walked up to him slowly trying to be quiet as possible, but the creaking of the ship's deck gave away my location. He turned his head to look back at me, but once he saw that it was me he turned back around and paid me no mind.

"Can we talk?" I asked, walking over and leaned on the rail next to him. He glanced at me from the corner of his eye, but didn't make any indication that he had heard me. "I guess I'll take that as a yes then." I mumbled.

"Do you like me or not?" I asked, now turning so that I was looking at him and not the ocean. "Why do you ask?" He voiced, not even having the decency to turn in my direction to acknowledge me. "Well I kind of assumed that you didn't any more. I mean if Caterina interests you that much then by all means go after her, but…"

"Why are you being like this?" Ezio asked, now turning towards me with his arms crossed, and a scowl lining his face. "I'm sure you just enjoy arguing with me. Is that right?"He pushed getting closer towards me. "Why are you trying to turn the subject around! I just asked you a simple question and here you are trying to turn it around and act like it's my fault."

"So it's my fault then?" Ezio questioned, his tone getting angrier by the second.

"Actually yes it is." I cannot believe that he is trying to pin all of this on me. Just the nerve of him to do something like that. Does he like arguing with me? Because I will seriously yell at him until I have no voice left in me. Gosh! It seemed like we were such a married couple.

And we weren't even technically dating. Imagine if we actually were. Geez, I don't think the both of us could take it. Maybe Claudia was right. Maybe I should've just forgotten about my feelings for him in the first place, then none of this heartache would happen. My god, I'm so damn confused at the moment. What was I supposed to say to him now? I doubt that he would want to talk to me at all considering how ridiculous I was acting.

Ezio cleared his throat a little to get my attention back to him. "What!" I asked, glaring at him from under my hood. "I'm just waiting for your apology." He told me, a smirk lining his face. "You have gotta be kidding me." I said throwing my arms into the air. "What the hell should I apologize for?" I screeched turning back towards him to hit him on the chest.

"For jumping to conclusions," He explained. "What?" I asked, now a little confused. "Well for starters…" He said rolling his eyes, "I told you that I'm already falling for you. What would ever make you think that I would want someone else?"

"Hmm…let me see Auditore." I said tapping my fingers against my chin. "You said something about her being your next conquest, and all those other times you looked on other woman when I was…right…there." I uttered through clenched teeth.

"But I didn't do anything with them…right?" He mentioned, trying to make himself seem like he hadn't done anything wrong. "Well…no." I mumbled angrily, realizing that he did have a point there. So maybe he hadn't exactly had sex with them or kissed them or anything, but still. He had said that he was falling in love with me, and yet he goes and does that stuff. It's still unacceptable in my book. "So…" He trailed off stepping a little closer so that our faces were inches apart from each other. "I still think what you did is wrong." I told him. "What will it take for you to forgive me then?" He asked, wrapping his hands around my waist.

"For one…don't do that," I mentioned, taking his hands away from my waist. "Two, I won't forgive you until you do something so nice that it makes up for it."

"What could possibly make up for all of this?" He questioned. "When we land you owe me anything that I ask for."

"Isn't that a bit much Amalia?" He stated looking anywhere but her eyes at the moment. "I told you what could possibly make up for it and here you are questioning me."

"Look, you know how I am. I can't help but always question what you do because most of your comments and actions are questionable." I huffed and turned my head to the side with my eyes closed. Just his voice at the moment was pissing me off. He just couldn't learn to keep his mouth shut and not say certain things, but Ezio being Ezio….Well he was definitely unpredictable.

"I'm still not happy about what you did though." I mumbled trying to ignore his warm hands that were wrapped tightly around my waist. Wait a second. Since when did his arms get back there? That sneaky little bastard. He thinks that putting his strong muscular, well built arms around my waist will change my mind. It was kind of hard to concentrate on being angry at him when he had his arms wrapped around my waist, and I didn't want to look like a bumbling idiot who couldn't get anything out of my mouth, so I opted for keeping my mouth shut and glaring at him.

"You wound me _signorina_."

"I'm glad my point's getting across then."

"Can we forget about all this?" He pleaded, taking both of his hands from around my waist and clasping them together in a prayer like fashion. "You may forget about all this Ezio, but what about me. I'm not one to easily forget things like this. Especially if they hurt my feelings a lot…" I quietly whispered, looking away from his face. He really should've gotten the message so far that I was sad about all this, but instead he thinks that this is some joking matter.

Having feelings for someone isn't something that you can just toy around with. It really does hurt when I see him doing all this stuff with these different people. I may be tough on the outside, joking around and teasing him, but I'm actually quite a delicate person. There are certain things that I like and certain things that I hate when it comes to guys. Well to tell you the truth I'm not really an experienced person when it comes to dating. I've never dated anybody in my entire life…well what I remember of it, and I've never kissed anybody either. I wouldn't just willingly give myself away to anybody at that, so when I fell for Ezio and his…charms (damn him and his way with words), I kind of fell hard.

He always makes me laugh, and cheers me up whenever I'm down, so it would be fitting that I fall for him…right?

Wrong!

Falling for him proves that both he and I have many issues that we need to discuss. For one, his whore problem, and fucking anything that has two legs and can breathe. Two, for me and my possessive attitude and my jealousy towards all these girls, but you'd think that that would be the right thing to do. Me be angry at the guy I like because he always flirts with these different girls and fucked them before he and I became…something.

Not really saying that we are something, but it could potentially happen. Anyway, I feel like I'm just confusing myself trying to talk this out in my head. "Can you be serious for once?" I asked, once again trying to remove his hands from around my waist. "I am!" He defended. "I'm asking that we just forget about this and move on."

"Ugh!" I said rolling my eyes. "I'm not talking about what happened _idiota_. I'm talking about our relationship. I feel like we need to discuss this and get it all out in the open."

"Okay. Then you tell me what you want this to be." He asked stepping away from me a bit to cross his arms. "I feel that we shouldn't pursue our feelings for one another. I think that it'll cause too much heartache and that someone, preferably me, will get hurt."

"So you're going to side with Claudia, and try and dismiss your feelings for me." He said, sadness lacing his voice. "Well...now that you put it that way." I scratched behind my head, now realizing how much of a douche I sounded right there. "Okay. Then how about we start from scratch!" I suggested, my face brightening up a bit at the idea I came up with.

It would be perfect.

If we both start with a clean slate, then we'd be able to move on and try and get our relationship started.

"Didn't I suggest that before?" He asked a little suspiciously.

"Well…technically no. You kind of implied it though."

He sighed and shook his head. "Okay. Then I believe that I did not get your name _signorina_."

"Not THAT type of start!" I yelled, even though I was laughing on the inside. This man never ceases to amaze me. "Okay. Then how about…"

"No!"

"But I did not say anything yet, how do you know that I won't say..."

"No!" I repeated.

"But..." I gave him the evil eye quickly shutting him up. "You and Amanzio are one in the same."

"How so!" He asked, turning to stare at the ocean. "Well…the both of you flirt as if you won't be able to live if you don't."

"True."

"And the both of you are handsome." I smiled evilly as Ezio smirked at me. "I see. But aren't I more handsome than he is."

"You could say that."

"I see." Ezio said nodding his head a bit. "Don't worry, when we land I'll show you."

"Show me what?" I asked as I watched him start to walk away. "Don't worry about it."

"What the hell are you talking about Auditore!" I yelled, now utterly confused on what the hell he was talking about. "S…"

"What! I can't hear you."

"E." I strained my ears to hear the last of what he was mumbling. "X." He disappeared and left me standing there, wondering what in the hell he had just said. "Wait a minute..." I grumbled, counting off the letters he had spelt on my fingers. "S...E…" My eyes widened as I just registered what he had spelt.

"AUDITORE!" I screamed.

His laugh filled the air making me angrier at the fact that I hadn't gotten that before. That damn Ezio had nothing else on his mind did he. I swear that he's addicted to it. They should come up with some diagnosis for him or something. I swear that there really is something seriously wrong with him though.

"Oh just you wait." I mumbled as an evil plan formed in my head.

This was going to be one helluva trip.


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: Happy to say that this chapter will be much better than the last one, because I actually know what I want to type for this one, so please look forward to this chapter and the next ones. Also this one's short as well because I have something in mind that'll be shown next chapter…so yeah. ENJOY!**

**Disclaimer: Ezio…drop your pants and your mine, if not...then I guess I don't own him…*sigh***

**OoOoOo**

They had finally landed in Venezia and Amalia couldn't have been happier. For one, she was off that god forsaken ship that made her lose her dinner a couple of times, and two she got to put her plan in motion. Ezio wouldn't even suspect a thing, but she'd have to have the perfect timing in order for the plan to work, and doing it soon would not make the plan effective. The both of them helped Leonardo gather his belongings off of the ship and placed them on the ground next to an empty bench. As Ezio continued to help Leonardo gather his stuff, Amalia, being the lazy person that she is, sat down on the bench and stretched out her legs. She watched Ezio struggle with a couple of boxes and laughed as he almost dropped one on Leonardo's foot.

"Why aren't you helping me?" Ezio asked, picking up some paints that had fallen out of the box, which he nearly dropped on Leonardo's foot. "I think that a big strong man like you wouldn't have a problem…Or I could be wrong." She said smiling at Ezio. He rolled his eyes and turned around to talk to Leonardo when I man yelling interrupted him.

"Messer da Vinci?" A man yelled, coming from around the corner. _'What the hell.'_ She thought. _'Why is it that random citizens just know when to come in at the right times.'_

"Yes?" Leonardo responded while getting up from his position where he had been examining the boxes for damage. "_Buongiorno e ben arrivato_! (Good Morning and welcome) I am Alvise, Il Signor Dona' has asked that I escort you to the workshop. Are you ready?"

Leonardo exchanged surprise glances with Amalia and Ezio as the man motioned for them to follow.

"But what about my belongings?" He asked.

"We will have someone take care of that." Leonardo quickly looked at Amalia in which she shrugged. Leonardo let out a sigh and dusted off his coats to make himself look at least a little bit presentable in the streets of Venezia. All four of them started walking as the man blabbered on about Venezia and how beautiful and perfect the place is.

"Come I will show you her wonders." Amalia jumped up and down excited at the thought of getting a tour around the city. When they had been pulling into the port she had seen how the city was bustling with life, even though they were just at the port and not into the heart of it. "Our first stop: the Rialto Bridge!" Behold the elegance with which she spans the Grand Canal. A symbol of Venetian unity and pride."

She jumped up and down trying to get a good view of the bridge over the crowd's head because she was actually quite short. Before she could even get a chance to see a good view of the bridge, Alvise waved his hand to continue on with the tour. "But I didn't even get to see the bridge yet!" She whined while pouting a bit. She heard Ezio chuckle from behind her in which she turned around and punched him in the chest. "You are lacking in something."

"Shove it Ezio." Amalia jogged to catch up with Leonardo and Alvise as they made a sharp left, heading towards a church that stood tall. "Here we are. San Giacomo di Rialto! Oldest church in Venezia. Isn't she beautiful? And her clock tower? Magnifico!" Putting a hand over her eyes to shield it from the sun, she stepped back a little bit to look at the church. The architecture was beautiful, as it stood out amongst all the other buildings surrounding it. "Come, come! There's more to see!" Alvise yelled, running ahead.

"But…" She started, but was cut off by Ezio who placed a hand on her lower back to steer her forwards.

"Come on Amalia. I'm sure you'll have plenty of time to come back later and admire its beauty." She growled under her breath, completely fed up with this Alvise who didn't know how to slow down one bit. As they made their way down a couple of streets, making turns here and there, Amalia had the sudden feeling that she was being watched. She stopped in the middle of the bustling market and looked around trying to figure out where that hard stare was coming from.

It felt like someone's eyes were staring right through her soul. A sudden chill came over her as her eyes made contact with a man who had a hood covering his face. She squinted against the sun to try and get a better look at the man, but when she stepped forward to try and find him the man disappeared on a whole. "What the…"

"Is something the matter?" Ezio whispered into her ear. She jumped a little and turned around a bit, trying to look over Ezio's shoulder to find out where that person had disappeared to. The feeling of being watched didn't go away completely, and she knew that the man had just relocated to a different spot. Not wanting to alarm Ezio at all, she smiled and pulled out an excuse right out of her ass. "No! I just saw a beautiful bird and was wondering where it disappeared to."

His eyes squinted at her suspiciously, but it soon went away when they heard a man arguing with some soldiers that had come into the market.

"You were told to stay home!" One of the city guards yelled, raising his sword in the air, trying to be somewhat intimidating to the poor stall man.

"But the rent is paid. I have every right to sell here!" The man defended, waving his arms around the market, to better emphasize his point. "Emilio disagrees." All three of the city guards started laughing and proceeded to take their swords and destroy the man's stall. "No! No! Stop it! Stop!" 

"Wait!" Amalia yelled, looking at Alvise, Leonardo and Ezio. "We should do something to stop them. It's not right that they should be tormenting well paying citizens like that."

"The guards could care less Amalia." Ezio told her, putting his hands on her shoulders. She shrugged them off instantly, disgusted with how they wouldn't do anything to stop it. "Let us continue the tour…elsewhere." The four of them headed off, but Amalia turned around to see what was happening to the man, but she was met with the same person that she had seen a while ago.

The man with the hood. Amalia took in a sharp intake of breath, and whipped back around, not wanting to know why that man was following her. After this tour was done, she was determined to find out who exactly this man was. She would have to hire some of the thieves to help her though. Completely lost in thought, she hadn't realized that Leonardo had stopped at a stall and picked up a doll from off of one of the tables. "Look! Isn't it amazing?" Leonrado said excitedly. "Hey I've seen one of those before. I don't remember where though." She told them, joining in on Leonardo's excitement in hopes that something like this would take her thoughts off of the man that was tailing her.

"Would you mind buying it for me? I…uh…"He scratched his left cheek while laughing a little. "I left my money with my bags." A bunch of footsteps pounding on the cobblestone of the streets could be heard as a bunch of men that looked like thieves ran past. Ezio turned sideways to avoid one of the men that almost collided with him, but another man bumped into him. The man turned around, but was revealed to Amalia as a she.

"Oh my gosh…" She whispered under her breath. _'Only god knows why some of these women look like men.' _

"Hey! Mind your stop _coglione_! (jerk)" Ezio shouted, as the woman smirked at him. He looked down, and checked his pockets to make sure that his money was still there. "Anything gone?" She asked.

Ezio shook his head, and Alvise continued onwards. "Come. We must see other buildings." As they walked on, Amalia still felt eyes following her. _'This man is definitely a persistent person.' _She thought, checking her surroundings again. Turning her head sideways, as if she were just admiring the buildings and shops, she looked around to see if there were any other people that were following her. On her left, a man with a dark red hood stood at an apple stand, gazing at the amount of apples in the basket. She knew that the man wasn't there to buy apples, for when her mossy green orbs made contact with his dark brown one's, he smiled a wide smile and turned around in another direction.

Just what was this man doing? Surely he must have some type of reason for following her. Maybe he had some business with Ezio. And when she says business, she means to kill him. _'He probably wants to take me hostage and give Ezio away to him.'_

"And here we have the Palazzo della Seta. Home to Emilio Barbarigo. Normally I'd suggest a closer look. But with the way things are now…"

"Why what's happened?" Ezio asked, beating Amalia to that question. "He's attempting to unify the merchants beneath a single banner. There's been resistance. Some of it violent."

"What…" She was cut off by an over eager Ezio. "What kind of resistance?" He asked, yet again angering her because he had stolen her question again. "They say they're fighting for the people. For freedom or some such nonsense. _Baggianate_ (nonsense), if you ask me." Amalia's eyes squinted as she thought. So if Emilio wanted to have all of the merchants in check, why didn't he do it in a peaceful way? There was surely some other way than violence to get someone to listen to you, but these leaders these days are so corrupt that they think about nothing more than hurting others. On the other side of the gate where the Palazzo stood, Amalia saw the same man from the marketplace, who's stand was destroyed, walk up to the guards and yelled at them. "They destroyed my stand! I demand compensation!"

"Here you are then." The city guard in front of the man took the end of his javelin and shoved it into the man's abdomen. "The Doge will know about this! I'll report you to the Council!" The man yelled, clutching unto his stomach. "Good luck with that my friend." Two of the guards approached him and grabbed both of his arms, rendering him from moving. "What are you doing?"

"You're under arrest for disrupting commerce."

"What!" The man yelled with wide eyes. "You just invented that! There's no such law!"

"There is now." The two men said in unison, as the dragged the man into the Palazzo. "No! Stop!" Amalia glared at the men even though they couldn't see her. How could they do something like that? For one, it was just completely wrong to go and create your own law in the first place, and two the man hadn't done anything to deserve that blow to the abdomen. She had a good mind to march right over there and kick some city guard asses, but she didn't want to bring attention to herself so she opted to just follow the tour guide as he took them to their next destination.

"And now I present to you, your workshop, Ser da Vinci! We spared no expense in its design. You'll see. It is perfect; as if you never left Firenze. I wish you great success and hope you enjoy Venezia as much as she enjoys having you!" Amalia watched as the man bowed with his hands outstretched as if he deserved some money for taking him around the city. Leonardo patted the man on the back causing the man to look into his hand, mentally asking himself what he had done wrong, why he hadn't received any money. The look of utter defeat on the Alvise's face caused Amalia to burst out laughing, and clutch unto Ezio's shoulder as if she were going to fall if she didn't grab onto something to steady herself.

"So here we are! Exciting isn't it? Care to come in?"

"Maybe later," Ezio said, walking forward to Leonardo. "But…" Amalia said, looking in between the both of them. Ezio glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, but continued talking to Leonardo as if nothing had interrupted him in the first place. "I need to visit the palazzo della seta. Try and gain an Audience with Emilio."

"What good'll that do ya'?" She uttered through clenched teeth.

"As you wish. But should you find yourself with free time, or another Codex page, don't hesitate to visit. My door is always open."

"_Grazie_ (thanks), my friend." Leonardo lifted his arms in a stance that suggest a hug and Amalia couldn't help but squeal as they both enveloped each other in a bromance hug.

"_Di nulla._ (It's nothing!)" Leonardo said, into Ezio's shoulder.

"I can't believe I'm seeing this." She said dramatically while wiping a fake tear from under her eye. "They grow up so fast..." She sniffed and joined in on the hug, making it awkward as the three of them were hugging in the middle of the street. Ezio was the first to pull away, but once he did, Amalia took his place and squeezed the artist in a bone-crushing hug. "A-Amalia." Leonardo said, trying to get air into his lungs.

"Let go of him." Ezio stated, grabbing her arms off of him. "But he's just too goddamn adorable." Amalia was about to reach out and glomp Leonardo, but Ezio pulled her back by the waist as Leonardo chuckled. "I will see you soon Amalia." He waved at the both of them and entered his workshop leaving the two of them outside. "So since you're headed to the Palazzo, I have some business to attend to in the marketplace." She said while picking at her nails.

"What could you possibly be doing there?" He asked as they made their way in the direction of the Palazzo. "Well, it's kind of a secret, so I can't really tell you."

"Keeping secrets away from me I see."

"What the hell kind of secret would it be if I told you, _idiota_." She yelled, smacking him upside the head. Ezio just gave her the look. The look that said, I-know-what-you're-up-to look, but-I-won't-say-anything. She smiled at him and pointed in the direction of an alley that looked like no one had been down there in a while. "I'm going in that direction, so I'll meet you at the Palazzo or maybe Leonardo's shop later, okay." To silence him from asking anymore questions she quickly kissed him on the cheek and dashed off down the alleyway.

**OoOoOo**

She was so right about it. There definitely were two men that had been following her. Of course she wasn't down there being followed. Amalia was clever enough to buy new clothing and give the ones that she was wearing to a thief, that she had paid to just walk around and act like her. It had worked perfectly as she scaled the side of the building and found herself watching from a top the rooftops. Of course the stupid thief had decided to turn in a different direction and head towards the Palazzo where Ezio probably was.

She couldn't risk having him see another person wearing her clothing, so she had to come up with something fast. Before she could do anything a bunch of heavy footsteps started pounding down the streets and past the guards that were guarding the Palazzo. The two men that had been following her exchanged glances with each other and whispered into each other's ears. Before long the men had turned in the other direction and left, leaving the thief standing there in confusion. Amalia jumped down off of the roof and landed next to the shocked thief.

"Okay you can keep everything else but the white robes and vest. I actually kind of need it." He nodded and handed her the vest and robes back before running off in a different direction. She quickly slipped on the vest over the white long sleeved shirt that she was wearing, and pulled the white robes over her head, before exiting the alley. She looked both ways before running to a stack of boxes and hopping up on each one that took her to the top of the building in front of her. As she peeked over the edge to see what all the commotion was about she saw Ezio's white robes flying behind him as he ran in step with a woman who seemed to be limping and running at the same time. Amalia felt that it was best to follow them, so she ran over roof gardens and wires that connected buildings to keep up with them as it seemed that they were headed towards the waters.

As she watched Ezio and the girl running she heard footsteps behind her. Turning her head quickly, she saw the men that had been following 'her' (the thief), brandishing swords in their hands. "Shit." She cursed, jumping over a roof, almost not making it. She pulled herself back together and made sure that she kept an eye on the men behind her, and not to lose sight of Ezio.

"You think you could fool us _cagna_ (bitch)!" One of the men yelled. "Why that little..." She grumbled, turning around about to toss a throwing knife into his neck, but decided against it because fighting them would just slow her down. Amalia's heart skipped a beat, not in a good way, as she saw Ezio pick up the woman and ran off down the streets with other men following him. _'How come he never picked me up like that?'_ She thought, dodging an arrow that was shot in her direction from one of the guards on the roof.

Amalia didn't realize how close the men had gotten to her as she felt a hot searing white pain rip through her left side. The man had used his sword to cut her and lunged forward again to cause more damage, but she blocked it with her dagger. She twisted her hand in a circle and flung the sword from the man's hand. It fell off of the roof, and the man backed up as Amalia clutched her bleeding side. "Tell me who you are and who sent you?" She yelled, stepping back a bit, so that she wasn't too close to them in case they had any tricks up their sleeves. "No one sent us."

"Bullshit." She yelled, panting from how much blood she's lost. "Seems to me that you're getting tired, Amalia." Her eyes widened as

"It was Demarco, wasn't it?" She asked, raising her dagger higher, ready to strike at any time. The man on the right with the blue hood started clapping. "Very good Amalia! It seems to me that you aren't just Ezio's whore after all." Amalia growled and lunged for the man ripping part of his clothing. She slashed again and again waiting for the blade to make contact with his skin, but instead of her blade making contact with his skin, he pulled out a hidden blade and cut part of her cheek. Blood rushed down the side of her face, but she didn't feel anything as adrenaline had taken over her body.

"We don't have time for childish games anymore." The man with the blue hood tossed her a note with a stamp on the front, which landed right in front of her feet.

"He'll be waiting."

Without letting her eyes leave them, she bent down and picked up the note, watching as they retreated back from where they came from. After staring down at the note for a minute she shoved it into her pocket. As she started making her way down the building, the pain that wasn't there a second ago hit her full blast causing her to become off balance and fall the rest of the way down the building.

She landed on her bad side where the cut was, and a cry escaped her lips. Waves of pain passed throughout her entire body making her groan and roll over onto her other side. When she looked up she saw little dots of blood on the stone making her remember that she had just lost Ezio and that woman. Of course they shouldn't be her top priority at the moment because she really needed to find a doctor, but she slowly got up and dragged her body through the rest of the streets, following the trail of blood.

It suddenly stopped and she looked up to find a thief standing on the side looking into the canal below. She peeked over his head and found him staring down the canal at a boat that was already far in the distance. "Fuck." She muttered.

How was she supposed to find out where they were headed now? A thought popped into her head.

Maybe the thief would be able to tell her something.

"Hey!" She yelled grabbing the thief by his collar, while still clutching onto her side. "Where's that boat headed to."

"I can't tell you that." He said spitting in my face. "Why you!" She screamed, dropping him to the ground and kicking him in the stomach. After kicking him a couple of times she got up in his face and asked the same exact question as before. "Next time I won't be so forgiving. So tell me, where's that boat headed to?"

"If I tell you, Rosa will definitely skin my ass." He told her, fear lacing his voice. "Well if you don't tell Amalia, she's going to do more than just skin your ass. She'll mount it on her wall and eat your body for breakfast."

The thief started shaking and pointed in the direction of where the boat was. "It's head to the far end of the district. Follow the canal on the rooftops and you shall find your way there."

"How long will it take me?" She asked, not wanting to risk losing any more blood by running. "About ten minutes or so!"

"Great!" She mumbled letting go of the thieves collar. "How about you take me there instead?"

"But Antonio will…"

"Let me deal with him."

"But…" Amalia gave him a dirty look causing a shiver to run throughout his body. "Okay. Follow me." He whispered quietly.

**OoOoOo **

Amalia had told the thief to go into the hideout first, but not to say anything about her. She had wanted to observe from above what was happening, but she didn't want to make herself known. Why?

Her knowing and showing herself meant that she would get involved somehow. The pain in her left side slowly started to numb a bit from how much pressure she was putting on it. She had taken off her vest, which was her favorite, and had ripped it so that she could tie it around her waist. The bleeding had slowed down a bit, but it hadn't disappeared completely. Amalia watched down below as Rosa was screaming for the arrow to be removed from her. She started cursing up a storm which caused a giggle out of her, but she stopped once she soon realized how much it hurt to laugh.

"You are hurt, Amalia." She turned her head to see the thief that she had sent away holding a damp cloth in his hand. "It is fine. I don't need any help." The thief shook his head and crouched down next to her, trying to remove her hand. "What the hell are you doing?" She hissed, removing his hand from around her waist. "I am only trying to help." He said putting pressure on her wound.

Amalia tried to stifle the scream, but the pain was just too much and she cried loudly. "You did this on purpose." She yelled, pushing him away from her. "It was for your own good my dear." Amalia groaned as a man with long black hair looked up and yelled at the thief next to her. "Who is that Riccardo?"

"Her name is Amalia, and she has been wounded."

"Bring her down." Riccardo made a move to pick her up, but Amalia punched his arm and climbed down herself with much trouble. "You could have asked for my help." Riccardo suggested, grabbing her around the waist to steady her. "I don't need your help. I can manage on my own."

"Riccardo says that you are wounded. Show me."

"I'm not showing a man my wound unless he tells me his name."

"My name is Antonio. Now please show me your wound so that I may help you." Amalia sighed and untied the vest from around her waist. As soon as she did, blood started gushing out from the wound. "I believe that a sword did this, did it not?"

"No, you're right." Antonio nodded and waved over Ugo. "Take her to Bianca so that she may clean her wound." Ugo nodded, and picked Amalia up bridal style. He was about to move, but Ezio grabbed his shoulder stopping him. "Don't worry, I'll take her."

"But you don't even know where Bianca is."

"She's inside the building over there." Ezio said, nodding in that direction. Ugo sighed and handed Amalia over to Ezio like she was some ball being tossed around. As they began to walk she could feel the tension surrounding them. "You have a lot of explaining to do Amalia."

She gulped audibly.


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N: This one's super short because I have major homework and I just wanted you guys to be able to read at least something…So please enjoy this as an update will come later…much later. Thank you to those that have reviewed and favorite this story! Glad to know that it's getting this much love! As for Ezio and Amalia's relationship…-_-. God they have problems. Anyway continue to read and review. **

**P.S: I felt super super mean ending the story like that…especially at the fact that it was so damn short and then the ending was just so abrupt that even I got mad at myself for just ending it like that. But now it gets the readers so interested. Mwahahahahah *evil grin* Hate me! **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Ezio or any Assassins Creed II Characters, but I do own my OC'S which include, Amanzio, Riccardo, Demarco and Amalia. **

**OoOoOo**

She groaned in pain as Bianca poured an ointment over the cut and proceeded to dress it. "What happened to you, how did you get this wound?" Bianca asked, trying to be as careful as she could. "Let's just say that..urgh." Amalia pushed Bianca's hand away not wanting to have to deal with the pain anymore. How she managed to get from the other side of the city to the thieves guild without hurting herself that much was beyond her comprehension. It was probably just the adrenaline that had kicked in why she didn't feel as much pain as she did now. "These two men, very persistent I must say. Well one of their swords cut me when I was least expecting it."

Bianca nodded in understanding and continued to apply the ointment, despite Amalia's protests. "Ouch! That hurts." She whined, pulling away from her touch. "Well it's going to hurt for a while if you don't let me apply this medicine. It should help your wound heal faster." Bianca finished as quickly as she could and exited the room, but not before telling her that she would be on bed rest for the remainder of the day. "Just great…" She mumbled, moving into a less awkward position that would be more comfortable for her. She felt herself drifting off a bit, and soon she was sleeping while snoring lightly.

**OoOoOo**

"Wake up." A voice whispered in her ear, causing her to stir slightly. "Ugh." She grumbled, rolling over, completely forgetting about her wound. When she put pressure on the wound she let out a little yelp and her eyes shot open. At first she looked down to check to see that she hadn't reopened the wound and stained the bandages that were around her waist. After making sure that everything was fine she glanced up to see Bianca standing over her. "I'm sorry to disturb your sleep." She apologized while sitting on the edge of the bed. "I just came in here to tell you that I need to apply more ointment and redress the wound."

"You have got to be kidding me?" She asked, backing up away from her. "You just dressed it."

"It is nightfall Amalia."

"What?" She said surprised. Moving over to the side of the bed, she looked around for her shoes. When she found them she quickly slipped them on and walked out of the room to head outside. Sure enough the stars were shining in the sky and the moonlight was peeking out behind some of the few clouds that dotted the sky. "I've been asleep for how long now."

"About four or five hours."

"Wow." She mumbled, stepping outside into the moonlight. "Come, I must tend to your wound. Only then will you be able to help the others."

"With what?" Amalia asked, returning back to the room. "You do not know?" Bianca asked, surprised that a thief wouldn't know what was going on. "What exactly happened while I was asleep?"

"Antonio sent that man with the white robes…"

"Ezio." She said interrupting Bianca. She looked up at Amalia and nodded. "I believe that he is becoming very useful to us."

"And." She said waving her hand so that Bianca could continue. "Oh. Sorry." She said giggling a bit. "Ezio had left to go and rescue thieves that have been captured by Emilio's men, and he did a couple of other errands around town. At the moment though Antonio has given Ugo orders to send Ezio on a mission to collect guard uniforms so that they may infiltrate the Palazzo della Seta undetected."

"And they weren't going to invite me." She said pouting a bit. "You are injured." Bianca said, stating the obvious. "Yeah, but that never stopped me before. Maybe I could help with something."

"If you want to help, I believe that you should talk to Antonio." Amalia nodded, and pushed Bianca's hands away as she was about to tighten the bandage even more. "It's okay. It doesn't need to be tightened anymore."

"But it could come undone."

"No it won't. You did a fine job." Amalia smiled at her and patted her on the back."Thank you for taking care of me, but I believe that I have to catch up with Ezio before he does anything…stupid."

"Just make sure that you don't hurt yourself too much! I don't want you coming back here with blood all over you."

Amalia laughed as an evil smile crept up her face. "I assure you that the only blood that you'll be seeing on my robes is that of Emilio's men."

**OoOoOo **

"And you want to help the cause you say."

"Yup" She said, nodding her head. Antonio sighed and walked around the room gazing at everything but her. "What type of skills to do you have?" He asked, running a hand through his shoulder length black hair. "Well…I was trained by this amazing man by the name of Mario..and I've learned swordsmanship, and theft, hand to hand combat, and many other things."

"Do you have any experience with working with other… perhaps my thieves?"

"I can work with anybody, because I get along with almost everyone," A light laugh escaped her lips. "But I don't like Riccardo. He makes my blood boil. Especially after giving my location away. I swear that guy would be a walking air horn."

"What is this air horn you speak of?"

"Uhhh…" She scratched behind her head laughing nervously. "Just forget I said anything."

"I see.." He trailed off nodding his head, with his hand placed under his chin. Amalia watched Antonio pace back and forth making her become very irritated just from looking at him. One of her pet peeves would definitely have to be watching someone do the same exact thing over and over. For example, Antonio pacing the room. She just wanted to take a chainsaw and cut his legs off so he wouldn't be walking back and forth all the time. Just looking at him caused her to become dizzy, and she had to ask him to sit down. "Do you mind not doing that? It really bothers me."

"Doing what?" He asked, continuing his pacing. "That!" She said pointing at him. "You keep walking back and forth like there's something stuck up your crotch or something. It's annoying."

"So little things like this get you annoyed." He pushed, continuing to pace back and forth, but staring at her while doing so. _Bastard's doing this on purpose._ "Yes it does! Now can you stop?" Antonio laughed and patted her on the shoulder, not being able to keep the grin off his face. "I'm sorry Amalia. It is just too funny watching you becoming riled by such trivial things.

"Now I do have a job for you, but not exactly what you think?"

"What are you talking about?" She asked, now interested that he was giving her a solo mission. "There's this pigeon coop…" Her face fell, and she rolled her eyes. Antonio just laughed.

"I was just playing games Amalia. No need to get upset."

"Yeah..well just give me the damn mission."

"Straight to the point I see. I like you." Antonio moved to sit at his desk. "Please, have a seat."

She took the seat that he offered to her and crossed her legs, now wanting to get straight to the point instead of beating around the bush. From first impression, Antonio seemed to be much of a talker, instead of a listener. Just from what he had done to her before, it was evident that he wasn't going to get to the point right away, but instead lead up to it.

She hated people like that.

"There are some conspirators in Venezia that I need you to watch. From what I have heard is that Ezio had taken care of all of them in Firenze, but there are still a few remaining who had managed to escape and come to Venezia. Antonio Ricci, Demarco Costa, Faglione Mancini, and Matroniano Canavacciolo. Information from my men stationed throughout the city has told me that Matroniano is a dog to Emilio. Man's best friend I'm afraid. One of our thieves has been bribed to send information to Antonio Ricci, and he relays all of our plans to Matroniano which has not been in our favor at all. Our attempt at flooding the Palazzo had failed that day because that thief is still amongst us and has been ruining everything by giving out information. We have not been able to figure out who has betrayed us, but I feel that you may be able to find out who has."

A hand was placed on her chin as she thought long and hard about who it might be. "Well," she started. "Who are the thieves that are closest to you? Give me a list."

"There is Ugo, Rosa, Bianca..well she isn't really a thief, but more of…" Amalia cleared her throat, telling Antonio to get on with it because he was blabbering on useless information to her. "Sorry." He apologized.

"Ugo, Rosa, Charlo," He numbered, counting off of his fingers. "Macio, Rodolpho, Regolo, and Riccardo."

Ugo. No he was too loyal and too stupid.

Rosa was injured that day at the Palazzo and Emilio wouldn't allow one of his spies to be put in danger as that was the only way he could get info.

That left Charlo, Macio, Rodolpho, Regolo and Riccardo.

When Antonio had finished reading off the list to her, and after she had finished thinking about the thieves while counting them off in her head, she knew immediately who the betrayer was. "You need not worry anymore." She said, trying to sound professional even though she was laughing on the inside. How he had not figured it out already just made her burst out laughing. "I do not follow."

"I know who you're black sheep is!" She said wiping a tear away from her eye. "Who!" Antonio asked. His hands slammed unto his desk as he stood up so quickly that his chair fell over.

"Oh…you'll soon find out."

Antonio growled and waved her out. "Be gone." He said, his back now turned to her.

"As you wish." She mocked.

God these people were so clueless.

**OoOoOo**

Amalia watched Ezio as he ran throughout the streets, weaving in and out of people. She didn't really want to make herself known unless he absolutely needed help, and at the moment he looked like he had everything under control. As she looked on this nagging feeling in the back of her head couldn't stop her from looking around. Something didn't sit well in her stomach, and she wasn't feeling very happy about that. The note still rested in her pocket, and she placed a hand over it, anticipating what was inside of the letter. The words rung throughout her head. The same words that the man had yelled at her before taking off. _'He'll be waiting.'_

What was that supposed to mean exactly? Everything was probably explained in the letter, but she didn't want to read what it said…not yet at least. To be honest she wanted Ezio right there to read over her shoulder, seeing what was written on the paper. But another part of her wanted to read it on her own and figure out why those men were following her. She was afraid that if she got Ezio involved with this then he wouldn't let her come on any other missions with him, and he'd become an overprotective person.

And everyone knows that overprotective people just ruin's your day. "Ah…fuck it." She mumbled, reaching into her pocket. Her name was written on the front. Not just her first name, but her entire name.

Have you ever been in that situation where a parent or a person that is taking care of you yells at you by your full name? That just reeks of you being in trouble, and you know it. Well seeing her name on the front like that made a bad feeling settle in the pit of her stomach.

_Amalia Salvatore De Luca. _Written in such beautiful letters that made her jealous by just looking at it. Wincing a bit at the snapping of the tie around the letter, she watched as the letter came undone and it fell down like how you would open a scroll. She squeezed her eyes shut saying a silent prayer to herself.

"Dear god. Yes, talking to you at the moment seems pretty stupid and pathetic, considering the fact that I'm not religious at all, and I don't even really believe in you that much. But I prayer to you that Demarco..or whomever sent me this letter isn't set out to kill me, because you know how Ezio gets. He'll find their asses and skin them alive. Anyway, please don't make this letter a meet and greet type of thing where I have to go meet him or else he's going to kill the closest people to me, or else I'm seriously going to chuck my shoe at the sky and hope it knocks you on the head….uh…in the name of you..uh Amen."

She bowed quickly and opened her eyes to start reading.

_Dear Amalia…._

Cliffhanga! Blaha! xD


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N: Nothing really to say, but the fact that I absolutely hate my mother at the moment because she's trying to dictate how I use my laptop and my internet time, because she thinks that I'm addicted to the internet. -_-;. So it may be true that I'm addicted to FANFICTION! Not the internet, but I'll never say a word to her, because if she ever found my rape, and non-con fics/ *cough cough porn technically in written form cough cough*, then she would skin me alive. Anyway, I've been busy with writing another fanfiction that won't be posted until after this fic is done, so that's why it's been practically forever since I've written anything. Kind of a long time, right. Well hopefully this fic says everything, and that it's up to your standard.**

**UPDATE: Also I'm really truly sorry for taking so long with this chapter. I felt so bad for not posting for about two weeks now. I'm not going to lie and say I was busy, because that's not what happened. In truth I was stumped…WRITER'S BLOCK SUCKS BALLS! I reworked this chapter more times than I can count, and I deleted a 5000+ chapter because I didn't like it. I had tried to type something while at Masaki4everDead's house, but I literally DIED! Trying to think of something. So I took a long needed break and now I'm back. Sorry for the long wait guys! Hope you enjoy**

**Disclaimer: Don't own nothing but the multiple OC's in this story!**

**OoOoOo**

_Dear Amalia,_

_ As you know, I now know where you are located and what your plans are which means that if you want to keep your little band of thieves together, and not broken up, you must do as I say. Do not think that I still don't remember what had happened years ago when I had taken you in and you betrayed me by leaving. Because of you my plans have been on rough waters and my master has required me to do certain things; that being to kill you and your little friend. If you want to see another day with your Assassin, meet me at the Palazzo tomorrow night when the sun goes down. Do not even thinking of bringing anyone along with you. I just want you. Only you_

_-Demarco Costa_

Great. Just freaking great. Friggin' pie high sky great. Not only was he a stalker, but a complete and utter pervert at that. What in the hell did he want with me in the first place? That had been years ago. YEARS I tell you. Can't you just bury it under the mat and forget that it ever happened? I mean sure I stole his money.

….

Sure I took advantage of him.

…

And sure I took his gifts.

God, saying that made me look like a douche, but come on. They're gifts! If you give it to me then it's mine. Besides, it's not like he was poor or anything. The man practically built Sam Gimignano from the ground up. Well not literally, but he put in a considerable amount of effort into assembling a lot of the buildings. The ones that he had shown me were magnificent as they towered over the town, but the shape that the town was in took away how beautiful it was. Basically Sam Gimignano was a replica of Monteriggioni; muddy grounds, boarded up houses, and people dressed in rags.

So maybe I was exaggerating with the rags, but you get what I mean when I say that they didn't dress their best. Even the guard's uniforms were tacky. "Ugh." I let out a breath and turned around to gaze out over the roof that I was standing on. Currently I was looking for the black sheep, but before I had watched Ezio run around because I was quite bored. Sure Antonio had given me a job, but he never really said when exactly I had to complete it, which meant that I could take all the time in the world… but I really did need to find out where this guy was.

It was annoying that I had to be running up and down the place trying to look for him, but come on. This place is huge! Where in the hell am I supposed to find a thief? They're skilled in hiding and running from those that are after them. So what makes him think that I can do it?

Well for one. I'm an Assassin. And we Assassins' have skills beyond that of thieves, which means that I should put my skills to work. But now that I think about it Mario never taught me how to find someone. Adamo and him had taught me how to evade a person. That was for when I was going to be defensive though. As for being the attacker they taught me how to use small daggers, large swords, and anything around me to better help my situation. Mario had always told me that when I was wounded badly to the point where I had to press my hand against the wound and still fight like that, he had showed me how to fight with just one hand. Even while thinking about all of this is still wasn't enough to help me.

I need to think like a two-faced lying thief.

If I were a thief and was celebrating the fall of my used to be boss, where would I hide?

My initial thought was my new bosses' hideout, but if he were in the Palazzo then that would be a no-no for me. On the other hand he could be inside of a brothel.

Yes that's it!

He's probably inside a brothel just having some goddamn fun. Watch me and him when I find him.

Getting down off of the building was much easier than it was getting up…which sounds strange, but if you think about it, it makes sense. You struggle to climb all the way up, using your abs and upper body strength to pull you along, but to get down all you had to do was jump….and hopefully land in a pile of hay, or else you ankles are going to be very mad at you.

Thankfully mine weren't as I landed in a soft pile of hay. Courtesy to Ezio of course for teaching me not to be afraid and just close your eyes letting the wind take you to the ground…

If you could only have seen my face when he told me that.

Getting out of the hay was easy but picking the damn microscopic pieces out of your hair was just cruel. As I was getting rid of the hay to make myself a little bit more presentable in public, I looked around wondering if there was a brothel on this street. Looking for one would probably be easy, but finding out which one he was in was going to be a pain in the ass. Imagine going throughout town looking for the right whore house. He could be in anyone. There's probably like fifty of them in just this one area. And trust me, Venezia is big. And when I say big, I mean like god gave me two feet damning me to complete and utter torture because walking would take forever type of big. The type where you look at the big picture with wide eyes and turn around, giving up, and deeming it too large to conquer by yourself. Yes my friends, this is how I describe how big Venezia is. God this was going to take forever.

Well...maybe not forever. I could use some resources. Such as asking the thieves on the corner in front of me where Riccardo was. Ooops. Did I give that away? Well of course I did. Who the hell else would it be? That man was just suspicious from the start. I mean come on, look at the signs when I met him.

He was too eager to give away my location when I was on top of the roof, and when I had forced him to tell me where the thieves guild was, he crumbled almost instantly and told me where it is, even going as far to guiding me there.

Now doesn't that just smell fishy to you?

"Hey you!" I yelled, running over to the man in front of me. "I need your help."

"Who's asking?" The man asked, crossing his arms in front of his chest to make him seem more intimidating. "Look I don't have time for your stupidity, so are you going to help me or not?" His eyes squinted suspiciously at me, but he didn't say a word. "Why would you need our help?" The thief on his left asked, also copying the man that was standing in front of me by crossing his arms. "Look I got money. And it's not like I'm asking you to move from this spot. I just need some information that would help Antonio and your little group because there's a black sheep amongst you and I've been told to find him. Now if you're not," I said placing my dagger against his throat. "Then you might as well die."

The man gulped at the fact that I had taken my dagger out without him seeing and placed it against his throat. "Okay…just put the weapon down." I smiled warmly while placing the dagger back into my little pouch that hung at my side. "What do you want to know?" He questioned, taking a step back away from me. "Do you happen to know where Riccardo is?"

"Riccardo? He's the one that's been leaking information." The man said surprised.

"No I just want to find him, congratulating him on a job well down at foiling our plans. OF COURSE He's the one leaking information. Why would I be asking you in the first place?"

"No need to yell at a man." I glared at him waiting for him to continue. He cleared his throat a little and continued talking. "Last I saw him, he was headed towards the fountain in the middle of town but he could be long gone by now."

"No he's probably heading towards Rita's house. He often goes there for…business. Or so he says."

"None of this is helping me." I added, tapping my foot as the thieves gathered in a circle throwing out all the information they knew, trying to come up with a location. "Well if he was going to Rita's then he probably wants to have sex. So sex is on his mind..."

"Then that means that he must be headed towards a brothel." The man on his left said, getting excited at the fact that he knew something. I rolled my eyes completely fed up with their stupidity. "So where's the closest brothel then?"

"Well there's one near the tower in the South."

"Oh there's also one behind the armor shop, a little ways from here."

"I said closest! Not one that's 'a little ways off'." I mocked putting air quotations around his 'a little way's off' suggestion. "I just want to know the one that's close to the thief's guild or close to where we are standing." I huffed, placing a hand to my forehead to stop myself from getting worked up about nothing. "Down the street and to the left."

"Now was that so hard." I said smiling. I patted the man on the shoulder and turned to walk away, but was stopped by a hand in front of my face. "Ehem..." He wiggled his hand while asking for money.

"Oh you want me to give you money." I replied cutely. "Yesss…" He drawled, waiting for me to place something in his hand. My evil smirk came unto my face, and the man would have never guessed what was coming next. My hand shot out grabbing him around the collar, and I picked him up tossing him to the ground. Straddling him my dagger found its way to his neck and his breathing stopped short. "Still want your money, you old douche bag." He shook his head clearly frightened at my attack on him. "Good."

I stood up, brushing off dust that was attached to my clothes and turned around to head in the direction of the brothel house that that thief had so kindly pointed out to me. The streets weren't as busy as I thought it would be, but they were still crowded nonetheless. Truthfully I was hoping that the streets would be somewhat deserted which would make it much easier for me to find Riccardo. For some reason, I feel that he won't be at the brothel that I'm headed to, but he'd be more likely going to a brothel around the Palazzo. For one it was closer to Emilio, and he wouldn't have to travel very far to satisfy his needs, plus it was also somewhat relatively close to the thieves' guild.

Basically the perfect location that he could travel to and from with much ease.

Thankfully it was easy for me to travel without too much trouble and I arrived at the brothel house fairly quickly. I politely knocked on the door hoping that no one was in the hallway doing anything…suggestive. The door opened quickly, and I was met face to face with a woman who had the skimpiest dress on that I had ever seen. It was so low, that you could see the beginning of where your nipples should be. They weren't hanging out, but you could see the different color compared to her skin. "Yes! How may I help you?"

"Um. May I come in first?" I asked. She smiled at me, and nodded as she stepped back to let me in.

Now let me tell you that entering through that door was pure torture. It smelled heavily of sex, old perfume and sweat. Not a nice combination at all. It was one of the worst smells that I have ever…well smelt. Keeping a straight face was hard because the smell became stronger and stronger the further we went. People were up against the wall making out and some were even sprawled out on the ground actually having sex.

Not a pretty sight I must say.

"I'm sorry about the mess."

Is she actually talking like these people were articles of clothing or something? Such an odd sentence to use on people. "I would've told these people to get rooms, but the upstairs one's are filled, and downstairs is just a complete mess."

_Great. _How the hell am I supposed to keep a straight face when there are people moaning like it's the goddamn end of the world and it would be the last time they'd be having sex? This man was staring at me as I walked past, and what made it even more uncomfortable was the fact that he was pounding into this woman on the floor.

"Oh god, Genesio! Harder, harder!" She moaned, grabbing unto his hair. "For the love of god..." I mumbled while shuddering a bit.

The woman led me into a parlor type looking room, and she sat me down on the couch. "Now what is it my dear. Are you here to become a prostitute, or maybe just pleasure yourself?"

How much more casual could you get when asking this question. "Um. No." I said waving a hand in front of my face and laughing nervously. "I just need to see if any of your clients happen to be the man I'm hunting for."

"Oh." Her face turned hard. "Well…right now's not really a good time…as you can see…" Her hand waved behind her to emphasize her point. "I don't know how you could find him by asking around like that…but if you must…" She trailed off.

"Well…I'll just peek into your occupied rooms to see if he's in any of them." Horror couldn't have looked any funnier on someone else's face. Her eyes were wide, almost as if they were glued open, and her jaw was slack. A smile wriggled unto my face, and I gently got up from the seat. "I'll just be done in a minute or so."

**OoOoOo**

Could I have been any luckier? Really someone just stand up and give me a round of applause for a job well done. Currently I was dragging a very limp body to the water so that I could jump on a gondola and make my way back to thieves' guild. It had been very easy to knock the man unconscious for he had been too caught up in his orgasm to notice a chair flying at his head. The woman beneath him had been screaming bloody murder, but I had done nothing but pick up the man and place him on my shoulders.

The woman that I had talked to before, the one that had horror written on her face after my comment, had been standing in the doorway shocked beyond belief. Before I had left I had turned around and smiled at her apologizing for making such a racket. Of course she hadn't heard me, surprised at my impulsiveness to say anything coherent. Instead I had walked out the door, and here I am tossing his body unto the gondola, happy as a man doing drugs.

I didn't really see the need to tie him up because he was out cold, and I'm sure he'd be that way for a while. But I did have the decency to pull his pants back up and zip his friend back in.

Come on I wouldn't be that mean. I have standards you know. The guy was pretty tiny anyway, not that I was looking….much.

To be honest I was slightly bored at my little mission. Antonio must have given me the worst job in the world right now. Somebody get a knife and stab me in the neck. I would have loved for this boat ride to be over, but these stupid gondolas are so slow, a snail could move faster than this. Even a turtle could run faster than this. And no, slow and steady does not win the race.

Whatever your elementary school teachers had said to you or your own parents have said to you is wrong. Slow and steady doesn't win the race…well because you're slow! Does being slow in school make you win the race in the end? NO! It just means that you're stupid and can't do better at a faster pace. Why was I ranting about schools anyway? And where did this come from?

Why was I talking in my head?

SHUT UP!

I growled out loud, moving the oar back and forth at a faster pace in hopes that this boat would move any faster. I hadn't even made it half way there and I was already fed up with this. "Maybe I could do something to pass the time…but what?" I slowly stroked my chin, as if there was a beard there, and thought of what to do. Maybe I could think about how life was treating me.

No it was going horribly wrong.

What about your friends?

I need new ones.

What about Ezio?

And that is where I cross the line, and step back. Let me just wave at the man on the other side and continue on with my business. At the moment, I wasn't interested in him and he could go kiss my ass for all I care. I'm completely done with him, but I will still accompany him on his trips to wherever he goes.

Why am I acting like this? Because people like him shouldn't have the free will to do as they please with others. Especially if they have feelings for you.

My face turned into a frown as I pulled the gondola next to a couple of stairs. Thinking had really passed the time on my way there, but now I was unhappy because Ezio might be there. And from my thoughts earlier, at the moment I wasn't in the mood to see his face.

Sure enough when I entered into the little opening where the thieves would gather, there stood Rosa and Ezio. Seeing them made me want to puke as I watched him touch her chin and bring it up so that she was now staring at him. Add the heavy weight on my shoulders, and ladies and gentlemen, you have a very pissed off Assassin on your hand.

I ignored Rosa's giggle as I walked right in between them, silencing their conversation on a hole. Apparently she had been explaining to him how to climb walls as she had done at the Palazzo, which made me want to smack her. Ok, so maybe I shouldn't be that harsh on her, because she really had done nothing wrong to me, but I wasn't in the mood to deal with their flirting.

It should be meaningless to me.

"Ah. Amalia...how are you? Is your wound fully healed?" Ezio asked, lightly touching my arm. I shrugged him off.

Now that I think about it, my wound hadn't been hurting me at all the entire time I had been on my search for Riccardo. Adrenaline had probably kicked in and had made the pain seem nothing to me. Hopefully the bandages hadn't jarred the wound and opened it; because Bianca would be mad at me if she found out I had hurt myself...again. "I'm fine." I said, putting on a façade in front of him. "_Va Bene_. (Alright)"He said smiling at me.

"Well I must go talk to Antonio, so I'll see you later." He nodded and turned back to talk to Rosa, as if I hadn't been there at all.

Ouch much.

**OoOoOo**

Antonio had been very glad that I had found out who had been leaking information to Emilio, but he was surprised to see that I had brought Riccardo to him. It was as if he would have never suspected that he would be the one to betray him. I had, of course, snorted at his stupidity and acted as if I was higher than him in some way…which I was. Not that I would have said that to him. He had talked to me some more about some of the other conspirators, and had told me of one of their whereabouts.

Something about an Antonio Ricci, staying in a small villa near the Palazzo. Apparently he wants me to go and tail that man to see what his intentions are and if he's working with Emilio rather than Matroniano Canavacciolo. It made no sense to me because one moment Antonio tells me that the Matroniano and Emilio were working together, and then next minute their at each others throats.

All in all it made no sense to me. Even when he had explained everything to me slowly, it still went over my head. "Anyway." I yawned while scratching my thigh. "Where's a bed that I can sleep in. My body's very tired, and I need Bianca to check my wound to see if it's alright."

"You need a place to stay?" He asked, flipping through some pages on his desk. I gave him the meanest glare I could muster through my half lidded eyes. "No, I was just asking to see if you had an extra room for my friend in the corner."

"I see." He responded, playing along with my sarcastic comment. "Well what is your friend's name?"

"His name is 'Imma kick your ass if you don't give me a freaking room'." He laughed at my anger, making me flip him off.

Bastard didn't even know what that meant.

"If you go to Bianca, she will show you our extra rooms."

"Good." I said, excusing myself out of his office. He waved me off, half paying attention to me, half not, because he had a lot of work to do. That included finalizing his new plan to make sure that it worked and didn't fail. I'd be glad if he didn't include me, because god knows I'd probably screw up his plans by doing something utterly stupid. Such as give away locations.

Why was I thinking something like that? Because Demarco was more than likely going to push me to tell him everything that he knows, hence why I was a little hesitant about actually going tomorrow. He didn't say anything about me not showing up, but he did say that if I brought anyone then there were going to be some consequences. I'm also pretty sure that he's going to want to force me to tell him everything that I know, not just of the thieves', but of Assassin's in general.

Obviously I won't say anything, but at the moment I'm wondering If I should open my mouth and say anything. Surely it would be wise to inform them of what has happened, but I don't want anyone getting into my business. I can take care of myself and I don't want someone trailing me or looking over my shoulder ever five seconds to make sure that no one was following me. I could do that myself and if…Ezio ever found it, he wouldn't let me out of his sight and probably accompany me wherever I go.

The best thing for me to do at the moment is to keep my mouth shut and act like nothing his happened.

But Ezio and I still didn't have that "talk" that he wanted to have with me.

What the hell am I supposed to say then?

Shit I had to come up with something fast or else he'll find out about this.

This was so not going to work in my favor.


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N: Yes, it's been quite some time since I've updated. Hopefully this makes up for everything, but I've been super busy. Now I'm free, so it took me about two days to write this. On and off of course, I mean this chapter's really short so to me it's kind of pathetic. Occupying my time watching Dexter because I've had writer's block, but I've also had another fanfiction on LJ that I've been keeping up with as well, so that also contributes to the slow updates on here. FYI, my lesson learned is to NEVER have three fanfiction's going at the same time. It's way too hard to keep up with, especially with my schedule. So yes, I have now learned my lesson, but I'm trying to finish up the other ones so my main focus can be on this one.**

**Disclaimer: I own my OC'S and the new storyline that I'm about to be introducing, while writing the regular Assassin's Creed II storyline.**

**OoOoOo**

"Amalia. Antonio has called for you." My eyes snapped open to see Bianca standing in the doorway to the room that she had provided me with. "Why does he need me now?" I groaned, rolling over as my back was now facing her. "He tells me that it is of an important matter. Please get up Amalia."

"You're lucky I'm one of the nicer Assassin's." I mumbled, finally agreeing to go and see what Antonio wanted. I'm pretty sure it wasn't that important. He probably just wants to get me up and annoy me to the point of punching him in his face. Towards me, he loves to tease me more than I liked. Always making sure that the things he does aggravates me, so he can get a pissed of reaction out of me. At the sound of the door closing, I made my way out of bed, stretching my arms and listening to the cracks that came along. I was very stiff from dragging Riccardo's body around all day yesterday, as I had never lifted something that heavy for that length of time before. It had surely been something new, and I knew that that should have been a sign to tell me that I needed to work out more.

Not that I was going to, but it was just something to think about in the near future. If I ever needed to overthrow a guard larger than me, then using my arm strength would definitely come in handy.

I didn't want to keep Antonio waiting any longer, seeing as though I had been putting of going to him for a little while now. The walk towards his study wasn't very long, and I was glad that the sun wasn't too high in the sky to make heat blaze down on me. Being an Assassin in the summertime wasn't really something that I looked forward to.

Why you may ask? Well the fact that we wear BOOTS in the summer might say something. Oh and did I forget to mention that the robes that we wear may seem light, but in all honesty, it was extremely heavy. On top of that, because I'm a woman, it's required for me to wear these tights that stick to my skin like glue. Taking off my clothes is something that I don't look forward to because the sweat makes it extremely hard to peel off.

A cool breeze passed over me, and I smiled as I knocked on Antonio's door. There was a bit of shuffling inside before the door was swung open to reveal Ugo. "Please. Enter!" He said smiling a bit at me. At that gesture my mouth turned upwards, but upon stepping inside, it dropped as my eyes met Ezio's.

Great. Ezio was here as well. Why should I be surprised though? Of course he would be here. The man practically worked for Antonio, but some part of my brain had tried to expel that thought for as long as possible. I had been hoping that I wouldn't run into him, because he wasn't really on the top of my friends list….not that the list was very long, but still. Because of the way he treats me, and how he acts towards all the other, woman I've tried to keep my distance for as long as possible. To give him a break, because I'm sure that he's sick of seeing my face everywhere.

"Amalia, How nice of your to join us." He stated while giving me his infamous icy glares. "Sorry. Couldn't help but make you wait for me." Antonio shook his head a bit, and waved me to take a seat as he continued talking. "Ezio, You'll approach from above under the cover of night. Emilio has posted archers around the Palazzo . Kill them. But do so quietly. As they fall, my men shall replace them." The plan seemed flawless, but there was still something that was bothering me as Ezio asked Antonio a question.

"What about the guards?"

"When you've finished with the archers, we'll regroup in front of this building here," He said, pointing at a model of their district. "We will discuss the next steps." Ezio nodded. "Nessun problema (Not a problem). I'll take care of the archers and return to you."

"As for you Amalia." My head snapped up at the sound of my name. "This is a perfect opportunity to assassinate Antonio Ricci when he least expects it. With all the commotion that will be going on, I am positive that his guard will be let down."

"And that's where I go ahead and kill him." He nodded and walked around his desk so that he was now standing in between Ezio and her. "Then it's settled." Ezio left without a second thought, but not before glancing in my direction. Of course I didn't pay him any mind, but instead stood up so that I was now standing in front of Antonio. "Where shall I find him?" I asked, fingering a loose piece of thread on my new robes. "Near the palazzo. My men stationed around there have told me that he is staying in a villa a few buildings from there. It is easy to spot out. I'm sure you will not have any trouble finding it?" He asked, looking up at me from a piece of paper that he had been writing down on.

"No. It shouldn't be." I replied, convincing him more than myself. "Then be on your way." I took that as my cue to exit, but was shocked to see Ezio as I exited Antonio's office. He was standing a few paces off, near the exit to the thieves guild with his arms crossed in front of his chest. I knew that he wasn't just standing there to look good, but was waiting for me. It didn't help that we were both headed in the same direction, which meant that I couldn't avoid him even If I wanted to.

Just my luck of course.

"We need to talk." He said, as I walked past him. "There's nothing that we need to talk about." I told him, avoiding his gaze completely. "Yes we do." He uttered, grabbing unto my wrist, preventing me from walking anymore. "What happened while I was gone? How did you get that wound? I know you're not telling me something." He questioned, giving me a hard stare.

A sigh escaped my lips as I turned around to stare at him. "Listen," I started yanking my wrist out of his grasp. I tried to ignore that hurt look that etched across his face, but it lingered there making me feel worse than I already was. God I feel like such an idiot at the moment. "I know that we aren't on the best of terms right now, but we really don't' have time to discuss all of this." Right now, I knew that I was just trying to avoid the conversation on a whole, and Ezio probably knew to as he got that look that spelt B-U-L-L-S-H-I-T. "Antonio's trusting us with a mission and we need to complete it on time ok. I promise that we'll talk about this later, but for now, can we just get on with what we're supposed to do." Later always seemed to come up in our conversation's nowadays.

Whenever something happened we would always say we'll talk about it later, or just try to avoid it completely. In all honesty I hated doing that, but as long as we actually did discuss it later, then my conscious won't bother me that much. "You promise." He responded, looking into my eyes to make sure that I wasn't lying to his face. "Yes, now go." I told him, pushing him on his chest a bit. He lingered as his mouth opened to say something, but it was as if something told him not to, and his mouth snapped back shot. With one last look, I watched him run unto a set of boxes nearby, and disappear over the top of a roof.

I visibly slouched in relief, now glad that I didn't have to deal with Ezio. My heart wasn't really looking forward to talking, but I knew this would come sooner. We had been putting off talking for quite some time now, but addressing this now actually made some weight lift off of my chest. For one, I was distraught over the whole Demarco thing and meeting him tonight, which is actually making me mad. How was I supposed to kill Antonio, when I'm supposed to meet Demarco? Surely there would be some conflict there. It just meant that I would have to clean up this Antonio mess quickly and then find my way to Demarco. The sun had already gone down making me more nervous than ever.

I was determined to find this Antonio before Demarco found me.

Now how in the hell was I supposed to do that.

**OoOoOo**

"No, Please. Get away from me. I did nothing wrong." The man yelled out, backing himself into a corner.

"Look, I really don't have the time to deal with your sob story, as I am really late in meeting someone, so just come over here so I can kill you."

"Never. Guarsd. GUARDS!" Amalia rubbed her temples with her right hand as she used the left to take a dagger out of her pocket. This man just wouldn't die any quicker. It was already late, and she had wasted enough time finding the right moment when to reveal herself to the man, but now that she had, she instantly wanted to get this over with. Antonio had left her on a wild goose chase as he had escaped her grasp the first time, as he had ran out into the streets trying to avoid her blades. "Just get your ass over here. I'm seriously not in the mood."

He charged at her with a sword raised high, making a crooked smile creep unto her face. "Finally." I whispered, dodging the man's sword with much ease. Shocked at me dodging his sword, he didn't have enough time to turn around and avoid the dagger that lodged itself into his throat. Blood squirted out of the deep incision into his throat, and Amalia ripped it out before turning around and running towards the Palazzo. In my mind I was having a mental breakdown as I watched the moon rise higher into the sky. It was well past sunset, and I was sure that Demarco wouldn't be there. Nobody would wait for that long just to have a discussion with someone. Especially about something so insignificant, that it was actually pointless for me to attend. The only reason why I was even going was to at least try and extract information out of him. It would also be very useful to kill him as well because he was honestly being a pain in the ass.

For one, having his men following me was something that I never wanted to experience ever again. Don't you think that that's just a little bit creepy? If I wanted to find someone, I wouldn't go to the extent to make my people trail them like that.

I shook my head to rid myself of these thoughts. What I needed to do right now is mentally prepare myself for what's up ahead. If he were to lunge at me, I had the option of falling into the Arno. That seemed like a good idea, but then something hit me. I stopped as I saw the Palazzo up ahead.

Ezio had been sent to kill Emilio there, which meant that all the thieves would be inside the Palazzo. Was that why he had asked me to meet him there? He must know that meeting there would be a death trap for him. If only I had informed someone of what was happening, then they would be able to sneak up behind him and kill him instantly. It wasn't that Demarco was a threat to them…well yet at least. But he was just a hindrance to our plans. With him working with Emilio, he had been able to stop all of our plans of overthrowing them, but if Emilio is killed, what is Demarco left to do.

Absolutely nothing.

This must be a big break for us. Demarco must not know that we were going to seize the Palazzo tonight. Which just makes everything better. This should be easy then.

I climbed to the building next to the Palazzo and waited. Something that I had forgotten to do was learn how to climb buildings like that. Rosa had taught Ezio had to climb to a scaffolding that had seemed nearly impossible, but of course me, at that time, hadn't thought of it important. Instead, I had walked past them, too caught up in my anger to realize that learning this simple trick would help me in the long run. Now I was stuck standing here looking like an idiot, wondering how in the hell I was going to climb that.

As I stood there wondering how I was going to tackle this task, I felt a sharp pressed against my back.

"So nice of you to join me." A voice whispered into my ear. "Demarco." I muttered angrily. "What kept you so long my dear? Afraid that I would kill your precious Assassin."

"He has nothing to do with this, so get on with why you asked me to come here."

"You still don't know." I tried to turn around to punch him, but he easily grabbed my arm and placed it behind my back in the most uncomfortable position. "Not so fast." He mumbled making his hot breath tickled my ear. "Antonio was just bait. And you took it much too easily." My eyes widened. Had this entire thing then been a distraction to get me by myself. Well he did say in the note that he wanted me by myself, but I still would've came with no one even if he hadn't written that. What in the hell was he planning? "You my friend are coming with me."

"I'm not going anywhere." I yelled, using my head to hit him in his nose. He cried out in pain letting his grip on me slack. I took the opportunity to turn around and punch him in the stomach, but a man came up out of nowhere and tripped me. I fell to the ground, but quickly stood back up. Both Demarco and that man stood in front of me grinning like an idiot, while my eyebrows creased in confusion. "What the hell are you laughing at?"

"You." Demarco mumbled. His eyes shifted a little bit, causing me to turn around just in time to catch the hilt of the sword that was coming towards my head. "Nice try." I mumbled, glad that Demarco had looked behind me. If I hadn't seen his eyes moving, I probably would have been knocked unconscious.

"Why don't you just give up already? I thought that we were here to talk."

"I am, but I want you to come with me."

"For what reason." I asked now crossing my arms in front of me. I thanked god that both men had laid off and hadn't attacked me yet. Demarco had shown some compassion as he held his hand up, telling the men to stop their attack on me. I was out of breath already. "You have ruined my plans, yet again Salvatore." _Ugh. Here we go again with the stupid last name thing. _I rolled my eyes at him.

"Those damned thieves have tarnished my name. No one takes me seriously now, and Matroniano has made sure that I do simple jobs that won't alter his plans."

"That's not my problem." I said trying to remind him that he's the one that had made stupid decisions.

"I had told Matroniano that if I captured you, then that Assassin will surely come after you. But he didn't believe me. With you gone, that Assassin will follow and we will have you set as bait so that we can then seize the opportunity to kill him."

What an idiot. Way to tell the enemy what you're planning. "And you're telling me this why…" I answered, not really getting the point to his rambling. "Because you will be mine Amalia. I'll make sure of it." With that, Demarco and his two men jumped off of the building and disappeared into the night.

"Well that went better than expected." I said laughing out loud to myself. For some reason i felt that a load of stress had been lifted off of my shoulders, and I was glad that Demarco had been dumb enough to tell me what he was planning. It was always nice to know what the other was planning. "Thank god for idiots."

**OoOoOo**

I came just in time to see Ezio exiting the Palazzo. His head had been looking down at the ground, for he hadn't noticed me standing there. "Where are you headed?" I asked, startling him out of his thoughts. "I have a meeting to attend." He said slowly, looking at me with sadness in his eyes. "Is something the matter?" He shook his head. A silence came over us as I followed behind Ezio. It was awkward, as usually when we had time to our self we would joke around and tease each other. But the teasing seemed to stop and now our relationship seemed to be very strained. "I had left you because two men had been following me." I told him, now thinking that this would be the best time for us to talk. "What are you talking about?" He turned to look back at me, but not slowing down his pace one bit. "The day that I said that I had to leave…"

He nodded a bit. "Go on."

"The men had been following me because they had been hired by Demarco. It wasn't easy getting off of their tail, but with the help of a thief I managed."

"That still does not explain your wound." I unconsciously touched the bandage. "Well…I said I managed, but only for a short while."

"Meaning…?" He trailed off, waiting for me to finish the sentence. "Meaning that I had been on top of a roof, trying to follow you and Rosa, because you seemed to be in trouble, when the men came up from behind. It was an ambush."

"Why would they attack you?" He asked, stopping in front of a door. Without realizing it, we had been heading in the direction of Leonardo's workshop. I had been so caught up in telling Ezio that I didn't realize we were going to visit him. "They gave me a letter, which told me to meet Demarco tonight."

I looked away from Ezio's gaze as he looked a little bit angry. "And you didn't tell me?" He questioned, lessening the distance between us. "I didn't think I needed to." I said turning to glare at him. "I can take care of myself you know." He placed a hand on his forehead, closing his eyes, as he tried to calm himself down. "Amalia. You know I care for you…" He started, but I cut him off. "No actually. I don't know." My arms crossed, sending a message to him that I wasn't playing games anymore.

"Why would you think that I didn't?"

"Hmm…Let me guess." I said, tapping a finger to my chin. "The fact that you chase skirts, when I'm standing on the side, hurt that you would do that. If you really did care, then you would show it to me unconditionally."

"You know it doesn't work that way. I thought that we discussed everything before. That we had come to equal terms."

"Equal terms Ezio! Not variable. Two different meanings." He didn't get it at all. You don't say one thing and do another. It just didn't make sense that he would be doing this. God, I needed to get over his ass. Claudia was completely right. I felt stupid for not listening to her right away. Ezio really wasn't someone that was reliable on keeping his word. Yes, when it came to work he would take up his responsibility and do what is right, but in a relationship…no. "Ezio. Say what you mean…and mean what you say. Don't just give me empty words that have no heart behind it." I turned away from him, ready to go in a random direction, but he hugged me from behind, stopping me in my tracks. His forehead touched my shoulder lightly, making me close my eyes. "Please..." He whispered, trying to make everything right again. "Can we not just go back to the way we were before? I don't like this new you. It pains me to see you getting hurt and treating me this way."

"You contribute to that factor Ezio. And you know that."

"Please..." He whispered again, this time kissing my shoulder, to at least try and convince me. Something told me to give him another chance, but another part of me just wanted to give him up. To let go of the one thing that was turning my life upside down. I wasn't being literal with the turning upside down. But he was plaguing my thoughts, too often for me to count. Instead of listening to my brain and giving him up, my heart took over. I turned around and wrapped my arms around his neck as his arms came to snake their way around my waist. "You better mean it this time Auditore." I whispered into his ear.

He nodded, not exactly trusting his voice, and a smile graced his face. _Uh Oh. That doesn't look like a good smile. _"Does that mean…"

"Don't push it." I warned him, leaning back a bit to stare into his eyes. "Push what." He teased, chuckling a bit. I should have hit him, but instead I smiled and laughed along with him. "I see where back to our old selves."

"Yes, and let's keep it this way." I added, meaning everything that I said. It was unnecessary for us to be arguing with each other. Especially for stupid reasons. "At a time like this. What do you suggest we do?" He asked as I watched a mischievous grin dance on his lips. "If you even think of the s word.."

"I won't."

"You better not."

"Not yet at least." I slapped his chest. I didn't realize that we were still hugging this entire time, until his arms moved down a bit more as he leaned in close to my face. His lips were mere centimeters from mine, making my heart skip a beat. We both started leaning in, as my eyes started to flutter close.

"Finally! I was hoping that you two would make up." My eyes snapped open to see Leonardo standing there with an innocent smile on his lips. I rolled my eyes and pulled away from Ezio, wanting his arms back around my waist. "Leonardo…" I whined, stomping my feet. "You just had to ruin that didn't you?"

"Of course. What are friends for?"

Ezio laughed.

Damn that man and his charms.


	18. Chapter 18

**A/N: So damn proud of myself for actually sitting down and writing the rest of the last chapter with no interruption. I should have been studying for my finals. But who does that nowadays. We fanfic junkies use that as our excuse for procrastination. **

**Teacher: Students hand in your homework**

**Me: Sorry didn't have time to do that**

**Teacher: And what did you do instead *hands on hip***

**Me: Fanfic of course. It's worse than drugs or nicotine.**

**Disclaimer: Don't own it, BUT I SO WANT FUCKIN REVELATIONS HELLA BADLY! (yes bad grammar) TOTALLY PREORDERING THAT JUST TO GET MY POSTER! *stupid grin on my face***

**OoOoOo**

Leonardo walked around the room mumbling incoherent words to himself as he picked up blank scrolls around his room. Whatever he was doing made me dizzy as he started walking in circles. "Leonardo…are you…?" He silenced me with a finger as he placed all of the items in his hand on top of the table in front of me. "I'm sorry my dear, but I time is not on my side today." I raised my eyebrows.

"A woman has asked me to complete a portrait of her son by tonight, and I have not had the time to begin."

"Is there anything I can do?" I asked. He looked up at me for a second. "If it isn't any trouble. I cannot seem to find my new oil paints. Can you visit the market and purchase some new ones?" I nodded excitedly, and hopped off of my stool. "I'll just drag Ezio along for fun." I turned around and grinned at said man who rolled his eyes at my excitement. "Come, Ezio." I yelled, grabbing unto his arm. "We have many things to do."

We both waved at Leonardo, signaling our leave and exited his workshop.

"Why must you continually drag me around?" He asked, with amusement lacing his voice. "You know why. And don't act like you don't enjoy my company." I turned to look back at him with a smile on my face. "So…" I said, not exactly sure where this conversation was going to lead us. It had been a while since we had a regular conversation, and I wasn't sure what we should talk about. There wasn't any new gossip around town that I could chat with him about, and Ezio being…well Ezio. He's not that type of person that talks about gossip like that, unless it involves assassination missions. Taking a left down a short alleyway, we found ourselves in the center of the shopping district. It was very noisy and people we're yelling across the crowds noise trying to sell their own products.

"You think that they couldn't be any louder." I mumbled. The noise was deafening and it was extremely hard to find where exactly the artists store was as the crowd seemed to grow larger by the minute. "Do you see it?" I asked Ezio. When I turned around to see what his answer was, he seemed to have disappeared. "Oh just freaking great." I yelled, throwing my hands into the air. "You'd think that he would have dragged my ass with him." It seemed smart for me to just climb the nearest building and look for a man in white robes. Spotting him out in this crowd wouldn't be hard though, so I didn't have any trouble in finding him. He was standing in front of a bunch of thieves, exchanging a couple of words with him. I was about to jump down to make my presence known when he suddenly looked up and made eye contact with me.

Talk about awkward. I figured that since he spotted me that he was going to come up here, which he did…eventually. He took a couple of minutes though, but soon he was standing next to me. "There are two men talking about Emilio down there." He said pointing in at a bench were two men were standing. "Are you going to follow them?" He nodded and jumped down off of the roof, in which I followed him.

"I can hear much clearer if we're closer." The both of us skillfully weaved in and out of people trying to get closer to the two men, but not close enough that they would spot us. "…Yes, myself in person. I'm concerned that you don't trust me." A man with grey robes and a white beard stood up, standing in front of a fat man who seemed to eat too much pasta for his own good. "As am I." He responded, clearly trying to send him a message. The both of them started to look around, making Ezio and I step back a bit from where they were. "Perhaps he'll arrive with the others. Walk with me…"

As they started to walk away, heads turning both ways to make sure that they weren't being followed, Ezio grabbed unto my wrist and pointed upwards. "How the hell are we supposed to hear from up there." I whispered. "You go up, I'll stay down here. It will be less conspicuous if the both of us are separated."

"How about you go up and I stay down here. I'm sure you have bionic hearing." _If he does that goddamn head tilt. _He looked at me with a funny look before, sighing and continued on walking. "Just make sure that you don't get to close."

"This isn't the first time I've done this, you know." The look that he gave me, caused me to giggle a bit. He's so cute when he's annoyed. As we continued to walk behind them, they finally started back up their conversation. They must have felt better, seeing as that no one was "following" them. "So how goes things in the palace."

"Honestly it's difficult…Mocenigo keeps his circle close. I have tried to lay the groundwork, making suggestions, but he has other voices at his ears."

"Then you and Matroniano must work harder, you both must become part of his inner circle." _Hey. That's the guy that Antonio was talking about. I wonder what role he plays in all of this._ I felt that it was too convenient for all of this to fall together perfectly. I didn't think that he was in such a high position, but now that they mentioned all of this, it did seem strange. Why was this man here at all? What exactly are they planning? "Si. I understand. But it's harder than I expected."

"And why is that Carlo?"

"I don't know! He just a…The Doge doesn't like me."

"I wonder why?" His tone seemed to be too sarcastic to me. Ezio and I exchanged looks, as they stopped in front of an armor shop. "It's not my fault! I try to please him. I learn what he craves, and I have it delivered—the finest jams from the orchards of Sardinia! The newest fashion from Milano…"

"Yes and that's called being a sycophant." I couldn't help but laugh at the man's insult. Of course the Doge wouldn't like someone like that. Those that suck up to you are nothing more than a dog. "A what-? What did you call me?" The man chuckled at his ignorance. "A doormat, a flatterer, a bootlicker. Need I go on?" _By all means, please continue. "_Bastardo…You don't know what it's like. You don't understand the pressure in there."

"Oh I don't understand pressure!"

"No. You have no idea. You are a government official. I am but two steps away from the Doge himself. I am beside him day and night…" _Hence why he called you a sycophant. Duh! "_You WISH you could be where I am."

"Are you done?"

"Hardly. You listen to me now. I am close! The Doge can be recruited to our cause. I'm sure of it…I just…need a little more time."

"Time is not a thing we have in great supply."

The talking stopped for some time as we continued to follow them. They led us to an area where there were less and less people, making it a little bit more harder to blend in. Only a couple of people now lined the streets, and those that did, carried boxes in their hands. I swear that these people made it their daily goals to get others to knock over their boxes and have guards chase after them. This man clearly had more than enough room to walk around me, but instead he bumped into me without even so much as an apology. I growled, ready to turn around and kick him, but Ezio grabbed my shoulder stopping me completely. "Can you not see that we can't bring attention to ourselves?" I sighed knowing that he was right. We didn't have time to fool around.

What we needed to do was focus on our task ahead of us. "Keep moving." The larger man on the right said, pushing Carlo on his shoulder to make him continue walking faster.

"Is it much further?"

"Don't be such a little girl."

They stopped in front of a big stage that had gallows set up. I believed that it was a scare tactic, used to make sure that people did nothing but good. Of course it worked on the townspeople, but did absolutely nothing to us Assassin's. We stood behind a set of stairs a good couple of feet away, but not too far that we weren't able to hear what they were talking about. As we waited, two more men approached the men that we were tailing. The one on the right seemed to be much more sinister looking than the one on the left. "_Boun Giorno_ (Good Day), cousin." The one on the left said nodding to the fatter looking man "—Signor Carlo."

"We thought Emilio would be with you."

"Emilio is dead."

"What! How-?" The larger man looked a little too surprised as he glanced at the other three men in shock. "The Assassin...The same one who hunted down the Pazzi! He's here in Venezia."

"Do not forget of his companion. That one is of a threat as well."

"What do you mean companion. I have only heard of one Assassin." Carlo said whipping his head to look at Dante; the man that was standing a little ways off from them. "_E Cosi_ (It is so). Silvio – did you not know?"

"They could be anywhere. They could be here right now, and we might not even know." I chuckled at their paranoid attitudes. If I were in them I would be loitering around an open area. Instead I would be headed to the closest building away from the eyes of…well us. "He struck Emilio inside his own Palazzo!"

"And so? What of our plans."

"There is no longer time for subtlety. My brothers. We must act now."

"But Marco, I am so close. A few more days. If I can just…" Carlo's sentence was cut off with a hand raised in his face. "No! It happens this week."

"We should keep moving." Dante said, pointing in the direction of the port. Already I was getting bored with following these four men. God. How did Ezio stand tailing people for this long? Especially when half the crap they were talking about I didn't even understand. I glanced at Ezio to see him concentrated on the men's conversation that was soon walking away. "Do we really have to stay and listen to this? I don't even understand half the things their talking about."

"Go back to Leonardo's then. I'm sure that you have wasted enough time listening to this conversation."

"And what's that supposed to mean." I whispered harshly, while crossing my arms. "Did Leonardo not ask you to run an errand for him?"

"Well…yeah." I said, scratching behind my head. "Then go. I will take care of this."

"Fine…" I mumbled. "But you be careful now. Okay."

"Oh. Concerned aren't we." My finger made contact with his nose a little bit harder than I had intended.

"You listen here Auditore." His eyes gleamed mischievously at me, making me growl. "Make another snarky comment like that, and you'll see what happens to you." I 'hmped' louder than needed, and made my exit. I didn't even get ten feet away when I heard his laugh, completely mocking me. _Just keep walking Amalia. He's just trying to give you a reason to turn around and yell at him. _I couldn't take the damn laughing that was coming out of his mouth, but when I turned around to punch him in the face something weird happened. It wasn't just weird but very unexpected. Everything started shifting white. It was like the area was disappearing. My eyes widened as the person in front of me disappeared into thin air. Soon buildings started to be consumed by a pure white color and this sickening screeching noise tore through the air.

"What the hell..?" I mumbled, trying my best to shield my ears from the deafening sound. I tried to walk forward to reach out to Ezio, but my body felt like the entire world was on my shoulders. My legs suddenly started moving slower than they should and the edges of my vision became pure white. No matter how much strength I used to try and shake off the feeling of passing out, it was pointless as I soon fell forward and my vision went dark.


	19. Chapter 19

**A/N: Thank you to all my readers, and reviewers as you continue to deal with me on my late updates. I'm not going to make excuses, because that's not me, but you know how we authors get lazy. This is a shout out to Lou Lou, who made my day with their comment. That really encouraged me to continue writing, and I'm determined to have three chapters done before the weekend is over. Thank you so so much to:**

**BeachVampire17**

**Ardx**

**Akeira**

**Xxnikkigirl123xX**

**Fratcats**

**Anna Cahill**

**Your comments are love, and yes…I just noticed your comments. -_-. I'm just fail. Please enjoy these chapters and the many to come. And if I don't update you can spam my email at Mt_ and force me to keep going. I know how readers are devastated when an author just abandons their story, and I really don't want to be one of them, so please don't hesitate to spam. Just make sure that in the subject you write UPDATE YOUR FANICTION! So I know, "OH SHIT! Ezio and Amalia need to develop their relationship." Enjoy!**

**Also got a twitter for this account specifically so you can follow me. My name's the same on here, Koiketsudayou, so please add me! **

**OoOoOo**

It was strange to wake up in a room with four people leaning over you with concerned looks on their faces. I was confused as to why these people were leaning over me though. Their mouths moved, yet I could hear nothing. Nothing at all. What were they saying? Why did my head hurt so much?

"Is she…..animus….fine?" I picked up snippets of what they were saying…but…I couldn't understand any of it. It was as if they were speaking a different language on a whole. "Amalia..." Someone shook my shoulder roughly, causing a wave of nausea to pass over me. "You have to snap out of it." Why? What was going on? I felt confused, and scared to be exact. Did I know these people? My vision still was a little hazy, but after a while I made out the concerned faces of Desmond, Rebecca and Lucy leaning over me. Shaun was standing next to me, but didn't seem the least bit concerned at all.

"Are you alright now?" Lucy asked, placing a cold hand unto my forehead. "Oh my god! You're burning up."I shook her hand off and slowly sat up as my back was stiff as a board. "Is there something that you guys aren't telling me?" My hand rested on the same spot that Lucy had her hand on before. I knew they weren't telling me something, but I wanted to know why I wasn't inside the animus. Why was Ezio gone? Was there something happening in the real world why they brought me back out. Didn't they say that I was going to be forever stuck inside the animus? If so, why was I here? So many thoughts and questions ran throughout my head as I tried to come up with a reasonable explanation for all of this.

"I don't know what went wrong." Rebecca started while walking around the animus to head back to her computer. The clicking noise of her fingers hitting the keyboard surrounded us all as she tried to figure out what exactly went wrong. "It seems that part of that memory was corrupted. Maybe that was the reason why it forced you out."

"What forced me out?" I questioned in haste, as I wanted…no needed to get back into the animus. I felt a sudden withdrawal from what I called home. "What forced me out!" I yelled again, startling Desmond and Lucy who were standing directly next to me.

"Calm down, will you." Shaun said while rolling his eyes. "Of course we would have told you if we knew. What is with it and you people demanding answers right away?" He was right. If they had known they would have said something by now. I needed a better approach. "Do you know how to send me back?" I asked, hoping that Rebecca at least had an answer to that question.

She looked up at me with a sad face. "I…I really don't know. I'm sorry." I couldn't give up now. I needed to be sent back. I felt that something was going to go wrong if I didn't get back right away. What if Ezio's memory blocked me out again? Did that mean that I was going to have to start from the beginning where we met? Would he not remember me if I came back? So many questions, but no answers to calm my nerves.

"How about you get some rest. I'm sure you're on edge right now." Desmond said, placing a hand on my shoulder. At that moment I wanted to brush him off, but I knew that he was somewhat right. What I needed to do was go somewhere to think. To try and come up with an answer to everything. "No…I'm fine." I slowly slid out of the animus chair, and placed my feet on the floor. Steadying myself took a little while as the room started to spin a little. After the buzzing in my ears and the pounding in my head subsided, I started to walk in the direction of the door. "Where are you going?" Lucy asked, as she now stood in front of me. "I need to think about something."

"Oh." She responded with her head now tilted downwards. "Well…then go ahead." I nodded, and walked through the door that led to a hallway. On the left was a set of stairs which seemed to lead to the bottom of the warehouse. I wasn't really sure where I would be headed, but walking away from all of this seemed like the best idea at the moment. It was as if I wasn't even walking down the stairs though. It looked like the marketplace that Ezio and I had been in moments before. My memories must be merging with that of the animus as the entire are around me seemed to fade in and out of an image of the market. There was a slight buzzing in the back of my head, and clutching at it did nothing to calm my nerves. Instead of walking further down the stairs, I stopped and slid down the wall.

Why was this happening right now? And why were these weird visions happening. Well…I wouldn't really call them visions. They're more like mirages that are happening right in front of me.

But they feel so damn real. It's like I can smell the odors of people passing by me, and smell the ocean which wasn't that far away. A shiver ran throughout my body as I felt like I was going crazy. Stuff like this wasn't supposed to happen. If someone is outside of the animus, shouldn't that mean that they won't encounter memories or people that were seen inside of the animus. It just didn't make any sense at all.

I didn't notice that their where feet in front of me, until someone stooped down, and their face was in my vision. "Are you okay?" Desmond asked, concern written all over his face. "Is there such a thing as Animus withdrawal?"

"Not that I know of…" He answered, scratching behind his head a little. "Are you having images of people around you?" I nodded. "It's more like the marketplace back in Venezia. It's strange though. I see the people in shades of blue…and they seem to look transparent, but…it feels like their actually here." I sighed and placed a hand on my forehead to try and stop the constant throbbing. "I don't know what's wrong with me."

"Don't worry about it. We'll find out what went wrong and send you back right away."

"What exactly is my purpose here? Why was I 'permanently' fused with the Animus? Why aren't you hooked up to the Animus?" The previous questions that I had asked myself continued to run through my head as new ones popped up as well. Desmond seemed to be overwhelmed by my bombardment of questions, and I felt bad for asking him. It's not like he would not the answers to these questions so…it was really pointless to waste my breath. "What are the others doing?" I asked after a long moment of silence.

"Well..."He started, putting out his hand so that I could hoist myself up. "Shaun is just being his regular douche self and ranting." I giggled a little at his comment which brought a smile to Desmond's face. "Lucy is trying to help Rebecca find out what exactly is wrong. She said she might be able to send you to a later memory, or a previous one."

"Wait." I said. He stopped in front of me and turned around with a questioning look. "Don't you think that if she sends me to a previous date, and I happen to get through all of that…don't you think I'll be shoved out of the same memory if I tried to relive it again."

"We don't know that for sure—"

"But you don't want to risk it happening again." Desmond stood still for a moment, processing the words that I had just said. I mean it makes sense though. You wouldn't want to risk going through it again. It'd be better to just enter into a later memory. Hopefully that memory won't be too far from the one that had pushed me out.

**OoOoOo**

"Hey are you guys done yet?"

"What makes you think that in just a lil' bit of time we'll have this baby running. I don't see you bloody fixing this." _Yup, typical Shaun. Only negative things to say about people._ "Do you have something up your ass?" Desmond retorted, obviously fed up with Shaun's way of expressing himself. Shaun just gave him a dirty look and returned to his desk, mumbling words that no one could understand. It's not like anyone was trying to figure out what the man was saying in the first place.

"So I think I figured out what we're going to do."

"Really!" I said excitedly. _Finally! _"Well…don't get too excited now. This'll take a couple of days." At that sentence my smile dropped, and Desmond smiled sheepishly. "Well, lay it on me then."

"Well this memory isn't fully corrupted which means that you can revisit it—"

"Why do I feel a but someone where in this sentence." I said, throwing myself down into the closest chair. "Because there is," Lucy answered. She motioned for Rebecca to continue, which she did. "Like I said, you can revisit it, but it runs the chance of erasing Ezio's memory of you on a whole."

"Which means that I would have to try and find my way back into Ezio's life without looking suspicious?"

"Exactly." Lucy said. "Now there is an upside to this."

"How could there be a positive out of this? Don't you think that we should just ignore this one little memory and continue onwards?" Lucy shook her head and stepped forward. "Ezio has an important encounter here."

"And who would that be?" I asked, now completely confused. "Well, because of you…and you're…um. How should I put this…"

"Basically you fucked up by meeting Demarco."Shaun butted in with a raised eyebrow. I stared at him with wide eyes. _What?_ What does he have to do with anything? It wasn't my fault that I ended up there. I guess you could say that it was fate what brought us together. _God did that just sound cheesy._

"So what exactly does he…do when he meets him?"

"Well that's the thing." Rebecca answered. "We don't exactly know."

"Wait a second—" I began while jumping out of my chair. I realized something while sitting down. "If Ezio doesn't know who I am do you think that means that Demarco still knows who I am and what I did to him the night before this happened."

"I would think." Desmond stated, while glancing at Lucy and Rebecca for some type of reassurance.

"Crap." I muttered under my breath. You see, if Demarco didn't remember anything that I had done to him then that would mean that it would be easier to slide back into Ezio's life. "Wait a minute..." I placed a finger in the air as my eyes started getting wide. I had an idea. "If Demarco does know me, then that means that I could purposely hand myself over to him. If I did that then Demarco would encounter Ezio, still thinking that we know each other and are very close. If that happened Ezio would be confused because his memories of me have been erased. Thus meaning that Demarco wouldn't know what is going on and eventually give up on me."

"Or—"

"Or what." I snapped turning to glare at Shuan. "You got any other bright ideas Sherlock." He ignored my snappy comment and continued on as if nothing had happened. "Or you could just be sent to a later memory."

"Or that." I said, feeling utterly stupid at how I snapped at him for no reason. "Look guys. We'll figure it out tomorrow okay. If we can't get it up and running then, the latest will be two days."

Ugh. This is just friggin' awesome. Not only am I feeling sad at not being able to see Ezio, but it also meant that the animus probably won't be working for a couple of days. Isn't that just awesome.

**OoOoOo**

_2 days later_

No, I was not in the animus yet. Yes, I was feeling utterly depressed at being here in the real world. Shaun was nothing but a pain in my ass, constantly making such rude comments that forced me to hold my tongue and teach myself to control everything that I had to not kick him where the sun doesn't shine. Desmond had been nice and kept me company, but he also had his own training that he did downstairs in the warehouse, leaving me by myself. It was hard just staying here and not doing anything. The migraines increased tenfold, and I spent most of my time lying down, drugging myself up with more painkillers than I could count. I wasn't really one for Advil, or Tylenol because my motto had always been "If people get stabbed every day, I think I can take it without complaining", but this had desperately called for them.

It felt like I was going crazy. Every wall I looked at I saw either something from Venezia, or horses, or any type of person walking down the street. All in all, it was _killing _me. It didn't help that Shaun's constant banter with Desmond happened 24/7 which had always ended up with me yelling at the both of them to shut up. Personally I enjoyed being inside of the animus rather than hanging with them, and now I felt why Desmond was so frustrated sometimes. Four words.

Shaun is a dick.

No other words to explain it. I don't know how these people put up with him and his snarky comments, but I was fairly close to snapping his arm in two. "God, can't you people do anything right. This thing should have been done ages ago."

"I don't see you trying to fix it." I mumbled.

"I don't need to. It's not in my job description." He glared at me, and I returned it by flipping him off.

"Touchy aren't we." He is so lucky that I don't have any throwing knives right now. If I did, one would be lodged in the side of his neck with blood pouring heavily out of the wound.

It wouldn't be for another three hours that Rebecca ended up fixing the animus. "Done." She yelled, satisfied with her work. If I was lesbian, I would kiss her to death, but the word sodomy popped up into my head. I laughed at the thoughts of it, and how people in Ezio's time where homophobic. "What are you laughing about?" Shaun asked, brushing past me, purposely knocking shoulders with me. "Oh you know, just the usual. Taking a knife and shoving it into your neck." I smiled sweetly and returned the favor by knocking shoulders with him as well.

I could just feel his eyes on the back of my head right now, but at the moment, I could care less.

"Alright, Amalia. Get in the chair."

I followed Rebecca's instructions without a second thought and waited for Lucy to come over. "We've decided not to send you to the corrupted memory, but to the memory directly afterwards."

"And what is that." I asked.

"Well you'll just have to find out." Lucy smiled before taking a syringe and inserting it into my arm. "Be careful." She whispered as I closed my eyes, and white surrounded me.

I didn't have to wait very long before the white started to form buildings, and the ground below me started to form cobblestone. A smile graced my face as the sky started to turn black, and stars where shining in the sky. After everything finished forming I opened my eyes to see Leonardo's workshop in front of me.

"I wonder what memory this is." I whispered to myself as I knocked on the door lightly. It didn't take long before the door was opened and I was met with a disheveled artist with paint spots on his face. I giggled quietly as a small smile graced his face. "Amalia." I nodded and pulled him into a hug. I could feel him slightly stiffen but he wrapped his arms around me and returned the hug. "I missed you." I mumbled into his hair. "But I just saw you." He said with confusion lacing his face. I didn't know what to say to him after that, but I instead opted to pull away from him.

"Uh…you have paint on your face." I told him. A blush crept unto his cheeks and he quickly scrubbed at his face, completely missing the paint. "Here. Let me do it." I whispered with a hint of amusement lining it. It didn't take long before the paint disappeared leaving a blushing Leonardo. "You're too cute." I mumbled while pinching his cheeks a little bit. He slapped my hands away and stepped back a bit so that I could enter. He cleared his throat a bit before speaking. "What brings you here?" He questioned while shuffling through a pile of papers on his workbench.

"You know you ought to clean this place up a bit. An assistant might come in handy some day."

"You're avoiding my question Amalia." Well… he caught me. But what was I supposed to say. I was really just dropped off here, and I don't know where Ezio is. Wait. That's it. I don't know where he is.

"I lost Ezio."

"How did you lose him?" _Crap._

"Well—" My voice was cut off by a sharp knock at the door. _Thank god._ Before Leonardo could answer, Ezio burst through the door. He trailed into the room breathing heavily as if he had just ran throughout the entire city to get here…which he probably did. "I need your help Leonardo." Ezio glanced at me quickly, but didn't say anything to really acknowledge my presence.

"Does it work?" He asked pointing at the contraption that was hung above my head. "What. What are you asking?"

"Does – it – work? Leonardo. Can it really fly?"

"I don't know…It's only a prototype. An idea. It's not ready yet." Leonardo told him while scratching behind his head. To me Leonardo must have been a little too ready to answer his question. If Ezio was thinking of using that death trap, I would surely walk up to him and smack him, but because I haven't seen him for a couple of days I'm going to be nice and not do anything…rash.

"Have you tried it?"

"No! It's too dangerous" Leonardo sternly voiced. He whipped his head around to stare incredulously at Ezio. "To test it, you'd have to leap off a tower! Who would be mad enough to do a thing like that?" _Leave it to Leonardo to ask a silly question like that. _"Leonardo." Ezio began as he crossed his arms across his chest. "I think you just found your madman."

"You have got to be fucking kidding me." I uttered, clearly stunned at what Ezio was trying to do. "Are you trying to kill yourself? You don't even know if the things going to work or not." Ok, so I didn't lie about saying I wouldn't smack him, but I was clearly fed up with him and his daredevil stunts. "I must agree with Amalia, Ezio. She is right." 

"How else must I complete this mission?"

"You'll find a way. I'm sure of it." I smiled and patted him on his shoulder which he immediately smacked away. _What the hell is his problem? _

"Leonardo, if it isn't too much trouble—"

"I believe I could clear up my schedule and have this fixed by tomorrow morning." Ezio smiled widely and brought Leonardo into a hug before turning to me. Just the look on his face was enough for me to toss a vase at the wall. He thought this was a fucking game, trying to see who could win Leonardo over faster. He is lucky that I like his ass. Otherwise I would've punched him just because I couldn't take his attitude. Well I'm not one to back down from a challenge.

Bring it Auditore.

"Is that so?" I declared while getting into his face. He smirked at me.

"This isn't over." I told him, while poking his nose roughly with my pointer finger. "I'll win him over."

"I would love to see you try."

Try I will. And winning…well you already know who's going to win. This would be a piece of cake for me. I'd just have to get Leonardo to be extremely uncomfortable and agree to everything I ask of him. And what better way to win an artist over by flirting with him. Yes, I have stooped so low as to use my womanly powers to win him over. Leonardo has no skills in the romance category and I'm sure that by just flirting with him, he'll be red in the face by the time I was done with him.

I grinned evilly to myself.

Oh this would be fun.


	20. Chapter 20

**A/N: As promised, another chapter update. This one is a little bit shorter, but I was actually in a rush as I had to wash my hair, but please enjoy. Thank you again for the comment Lou Lou! :). Made my morning when I got up and read it. I didn't get my three chapters done, but this one will have to do. Sawy! **

**Also, got a twitter for this account so add me so I don't look like a complete fool making tweets with no followers. Once again it's Koiketsudayou! **

**OoOoOo**

Morning came and I yawned as I crawled out of Leonardo's bed. My back felt stiff as a doornail and I stretched out a bit to try and work out the kinks in my back. A soft knock was placed on the door and I saw Ezio step inside with a smirk on his face. "Oh god." I mumbled, running a hand through my bed hair, trying to tame it so I didn't look like a complete fool. "What are you doing here?" I asked, bending down to touch my toes a couple of times. I hear that exercising in the morning is good to get your blood flowing. "Leonardo and I are headed to the rooftops."

"To do what! Teach you how to die." I retorted while coming back up from my bending position. I twisted from side to side and stretched my hands in the air as I waited for Ezio to answer with a witty comeback. "No." He answered in a monotone voice. _Dammit. Why isn't he responding with a snarky comeback?_

"Well then…" I began, staring at him with tired eyes. "Anything else?" He shook his head, but instead of leaving like I expected him to, he closed the door behind him and walked towards me. I held my breath as he walked past me and sat in the chair behind me. _What exactly was it that he wanted? _"Umm…." I wasn't exactly sure what I was supposed to say to him as he was just lounging on the bed, and it honestly made me extremely uncomfortable.

I could feel his eyes on the back of me and I didn't really like that at all. He chuckled a little and then silence fell around us again. Turning around I saw his back against the headboard of the bed and his feet were just spread out in front of him. I couldn't tell what he was thinking, nor could I see his eyes because of the stupid hood that was covering his face. Only his lips were visible and I could clearly see a smirk lining his face. _What the hell does he need to smirk about? It's not like I was naked or anything, because I'm pretty sure that I would have noticed something like that. He's just sitting there acting like he owns the damn place. _

"Is there a reason why your smirking Auditore?" He smiled and I growled under my breath. He just loves it when I call him by his last name. The only times that I did that was when I either a, get fed up with him, or b, have a rude comment to say to him. In this case, a applied perfectly with this situation and yes, I was fed up with him. Him and his damn attitude. Him and his damn arrogant self. Him and his damn sexy self. _What the hell am I thinking? _I grabbed the end of my hair and started tugging on it roughly to try and rid my head of these thoughts. Not….that I minded his hot self, but STILL, I can't just be easy for him. I have to make his life miserable, and be the arrogant person that I am. I have my image to keep up here.

"You."

"Me what?" I asked, crossing my arms to let him know that I was not about to play games with him. He shrugged in response, and I threw my hands into the air completely fed up. Not a day after I get back from the real world does he start pestering me and getting on my damn nerves. _And I said I missed him._ I snorted at my thought. "Is there a reason why you just love to bother me to no end? Surely you must have some reason behind all of this?"

"Nope."

I glared knives and bullets at him. No not daggers honey. Daggers won't get the job done.

"Ezio." I cooed sweetly while sauntering over to him as sexily as I could, which in my head I felt like I was a freaking duck penguin, waddling over to him…which makes no sense at all. I could see him look up slightly as I leaned over him while grinning. "Come on. You know you want to tell me."

"Do I?" I bit back a slap and rude comment to him. He's lucky I like him. "Yes. Because you know you like me." He grabbed my waist and pulled me close enough that I could see his brown eyes under his eyes.

"Oh really." He whispered. I nodded and he moved so that his lips were just centimeters from mine. _What the hell am I doing? I don't want to kiss him. And why am I using this kind of tactic just to get stupid information out of him. _I shyly glanced at his lips and then back towards his eyes. I could see a hint of lust forming in his eyes, and I knew that if we kissed, Ezio wouldn't be able to stop. Thank the lords that Leonardo is a mood breaker, and that he opened the door asking a question.

We both pulled away swiftly, as Leonardo continued to talk while flipping through his book. Leave it to Leonardo to be the oblivious one. I smiled as Leonardo continued talking about his contraption as he left the room in a flutter of red robes and rambling nonsense. My eyes stole a quick glance at Ezio, and he seemed to be a little mad, but I wasn't about to complain. Somewhere inside of me I was also slightly disappointed, but another part of me didn't want to find out what would have happened if we did.

"Well…I guess we should get going then…" I trailed off.

I lingered for a little why before exiting the room quickly. A breathe that I didn't realize that I was holding came out and I started taking in gasps of air while walking down the stairs quickly.

That was something that I didn't want to experience again. Well at least not anytime soon.

**OoOoOo**

Leonardo, Ezio and I were standing on top of a building not too far from his workshop. In front of us, in the center of the roof, was Leonardo's contraption, which looked more of an oversized bat than a flying machine. I laughed to myself as I thought about people look up into the sky and finding this. Imagine the screams of citizens, and them yelling about it being the end of the world as a demon 'descends' upon them. My thoughts were cut off as I heard Ezio begin to speak towards Ezio.

I might as well listen since I'm already here to begin with.

"So how does she work?" Ezio asked, walking towards the contraption and laid a hand on it.

"Have you ever watched a bird in flight? It's not about being lighter than air. It's about grace and balance! You must use your body's own weight to control your elevation and direction." Leonardo walked next to Ezio and brought a firm hand unto his shoulder.

"Good luck Ezio." Leonardo told him before pulling away and stepping back.

"Yeah. You're gonna' need it." He glared at me before stepping towards the oversized bat and getting under it. I watched as he placed both hands unto the wooden beam across the front, and positioned himself on the board that jutted a little ways out of the roof. It was one of those leap of faith boards, which I absolutely hated. Those things will cause nothing but my death, and I don't ever want to jump off them ever again. I held my breath as Ezio started backing up so that he could get somewhat of a running start.

_Oh God. Oh God. Oh God. _My stomach was doing flips as I watched Ezio run off of the building and just drop. I was mentally screaming as I started running towards the end of the roof expecting to see a body on the ground. Instead a big gust of wind blew in my face causing my hair to whip back and forth. Ezio rushed past me and continued forward. "My God. It works." Leonardo claimed, standing next to me with a wide grin plastered to his face. I started jumping up and down yelling and hugging onto Leonardo, happy that Ezio hadn't killed himself, and that his machine had actually worked.

This man was seriously a genius, and I had the urge to kiss him. What happened next was a shock to both Leonardo and I, as we saw Ezio slowly start descending to the ground. "Holy fuck. He's going to crash!" I yelled, placing both hands over my eyes. Even when people do that they still end up peeking through their fingers, which was what I did. The machine went up a little bit, but then started spiraling towards the ground at a fast rate. '_Don't die you fucking idiot'. _I yelled in my head. No matter how much I said that, it looked as if Ezio really did die. I saw the machine smash into the ground as it crumbled in on itself.

I couldn't even see his robes or anything. The machine was just still and I turned around letting a tear slip out of my eye. "I told him to be careful." I whispered. Leonardo stood next to me and I started crying to myself as he pulled me into a hug. "I'm sure Ezio's fine." Leonardo whispered.

_I hope so too._

**OoOoOo**

I sat on the couch quietly, not exactly sure what to say. Leonardo said that he would busy himself with his sketches as he didn't want to sit around and wait the entire day. I wanted to yell at him, and tell him to wait for Ezio to come. He told me that I can't just sit around and wait for someone to come back. He said that I need to occupy myself with something as I wait for him to come. I didn't have to wait for long before a racket could be heard outside. Rushing to the door, I threw it open to see a soaking Ezio and a broken machine lying on the ground next to him. His face wasn't really pleasant to look at right now, and I could tell that he was clearly aggravated at how much of a failure the contraption was.

"Are you okay!" I asked, hugging him around the waist. I didn't wait for him to hug back as I pulled away to stare at him. "I am fine." I smiled widely, and stepped to the side so that he could enter. Leonardo came forward quickly and started beaming widely. "I can't believe it!" He started stretching out his arms wide as that was the only way he could really express how happy he was. "It worked! It really worked! You flew Ezio! You flew!"

"Si, but not very far." He responded with an annoyed tone.

"Well what were you expecting? The machine wasn't designed for distance." _And you think you could have told him that in the first place, before letting him blindly jump off of a building expecting it to work. _I rolled my eyes at Leonardo's answer.

Ezio responded with a hard glare sent in Leonardo's direction. "Alright." He said, throwing his hands into the air. "Let me go over my plans here. Maybe I can find some way to extend the duration of the flight." Leonardo walked over towards his desk and began writing, when there was a loud knock at the door. Antonio opened the door and nodded towards me, but made his way towards Ezio. _What is with it and people not saying Hello these days?_

"Ezio!" He turned around at the call of his name. "My men tell me Carlo has the poison. We must hurry." He nodded and then introduced Antonio to Leonardo. "Antonio, this is Leonardo. The master inventor who built this…this—" He turned around and waved his hand at the contraption. "_Pezzo di merda_ (piece of shit)!" I giggled at his angry tone.

"Hey it's not the machine's fault…it's mine. I've checked and rechecked my blueprints. It's just impossible. I don't know how to extend the flight! Ah. _Che idea del cazzo (_crazy fucking idea_)._"

"Don't say that." I told him, while placing a hand on his shoulder. "I'm sure you'll figure it out." Leonardo didn't listen to me, but instead he crumpled up a piece of paper and tossed it into the fire before throwing himself down into a chair. It wasn't even a minute later did he jump up shouting "Eureka!" _This man is going to give me a heart attack. _My eyes went wide as he explained that heat rises, and that if they plant fires all around the city, it would take Ezio to the Palazzo Ducale without any problems.

"Leonardo. Sometimes I wonder what goes on inside that head of yours."

He looked up and shot me a wide grin.

Guess we'll just have to wait and see if these fires do work. Or if Ezio falls to his doom.

Cliffy! :D


	21. I'm Truly Sorry Author Information

Because I know people probably don't look on profile pages anymore to actually read what's there, I decided to put this in all my stories to inform people that are story alerted to these stories, what is going to happen over this next year.

Due to my focus on writing my novel, that should be published by the end of this year *crosses fingers*

I will no longer be continuing writing any of the fanfictions posted here. That's not to say that I'll completely forget about them.

It just means that all activity on this page will cease to exist until the end of this year.

I'm truly sorry to all my fans and those that were looking forward to reading my stories.

I feel that the writing on here that I have now is childish, and could improve a whole lot better.

When I do come back, everything will be rewritten, and updated, but as for now I must say goodbye.

Once again I'm truly sorry.

-Leah


End file.
